Bethany Begins Slow Recovery From Halloween Nor'Easter

Barely two months after Hurricane Irene left Bethany without power for upwards of a week, the October nor’easter blew through and showed the town that yes, indeed, it could have been worse. The level of damage from Irene pales in comparison to this storm, and according to First Selectman Derrylyn Gorski, there’s no knowing when the power will be restored.

“We have crews now in town clearing trees,” Gorski said. “The priority is to deal with the trees on the wires, and they are working with our public works department to get that done.”

The crews arrived from South Carolina, and Gorski stressed that their job is to safely remove the trees and branches, not restore power. The crews with that capacity have not yet arrived.

“Getting commitments for crews is going slower than CL&P anticipated,” Gorski said. “The Federal Department of Energy is now involved and they are helping to make that happen.”

Aside from the obvious tree damage, there is significant damage to major transmission lines coming into the area. Also, the Beacon Falls substation is still offline, which keeps the Amity Road area from regaining power. Today CL&P reported that they hoped to have the substations energized today, but Gorski said her inquiries revealed there were no crews working at the Beacon Falls facility as of 1:30 p.m.

Bethany schools are planning to reopen as soon as the streets are passable by school buses. Following the storm, more than 30 roads were completely blocked. Gorski said even if there is no power, the schools will reopen if the buses are able to negotiate the streets. Downed power lines, she said, are still a major problem.

“There are still wires on the roads,” she said, “and with all the generators going, there’s the possibility of back feed going into the wires from a generator that’s not hooked up correctly. We can’t take that chance with the kids walking over them.”

Even if school reopens, the shelter will remain open in the Bethany Community School Building as long as it’s needed. Gorski reminded residents to bring their own bedding for the cots.

Another major problem for the town has been getting information out to the community. As of today, major cell towers were still down and few cell phones were working. Land lines are also down, as is cable service, which means there is no internet from cable or DSL. The town’s Code Red alerts are designed to reach residents by phone, but very few phones are have service. Gorski said the town is considering a mailing to try to get information out to the community.

“Just to give people an idea of the scope of the scale of this problem,” Gorski said, “the number of trees down on Downs Road alone is probably 12 hours of work to clear. We have roughly 30 roads with blockages.”