A tree and powerlines are down on Rocky Rapids Road the day after the remnants of Hurricane Ida hit the area with heavy rain and wind in Stamford on Sept. 2, 2021. More than 1,300 people were without power Friday night as the state braces for frigid temperatures.
Tyler Sizemore / Hearst Connecticut Media file photoMore than 1,300 people throughout Connecticut were without power late Friday as temperatures fell into the teens, according to Eversource’s power outage map.
Eversource reported 1,344 outages as of 10:17 p.m. Many of the outages were reported in southwestern Connecticut and were caused by downed tree limbs, the outage map says. The areas most affected included New Milford with 292 outages, Wilton with 268 outages and Sherman with 185 outages.
High winds with strong gusts buffeted the region, according to Priscilla Ress, an Eversource spokeswoman. She added the company is working hard to get the power back on because “we don’t want anyone to go without power in this extreme cold.”
As of 7 a.m. Saturday, only 242 Eversource customers were without power.
As of 10 p.m., 18 United Illuminating customers were reported without power. By Saturday morning, there were only two customers without power listed on the utility company’s outage list.
Southwestern Connecticut was slated to get wind gusts of 25 to 30 mph, with some up to 40 mph, before daybreak Saturday. These wind gusts were forecast to slowly diminish, but were anticipated to stay above 20 mph throughout the night, the National Weather Service says.
The Bridgeport area saw wind speeds ranging from 14 to 28 mph from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m., with gusts as high as 39 mph just before 8 p.m. Further east in New Haven, there were wind speeds from 10 mph to 24 mph overnight, and gusts up to 35 mph, according to data from the National Weather Service.
In southeastern Connecticut, wind speeds ranged from 17 to 29 mph with gusts up to 39 mph overnight. Central Connecticut saw wind speeds from 10 to 23 mph and gusts of up to 32 mph.
The outages came just as the National Weather Service reported that temperatures will drop to the teens and single digits. The temperatures will feel sub-zero across the region with wind-chill values from -20 to -15 degrees.
liz.hardaway@hearst.com