Connecticut Light & Power (CL&P) said 285,000 customers are still without electricity six days after a record October snowstorm, as officials in three northeastern US states called for investigations of utility responses.
About 420,000 homes and businesses across the US northeast were without electricity, according to a Bloomberg calculation. The Oct. 29 snowstorm took down trees, knocked down power lines and caused the deaths of at least 27 people.
CL&P, a unit of Springfield, Massachusetts-based Northeast Utilities, expected to restore power to 100,000 customers by yesterday, Jeffrey Butler, chief operating officer of the unit, said at a press conference on Friday. The utility was on target to restore power to 99 percent of those affected in the next two days.
Officials in Connecticut, New York and Massachusetts have called for investigations of utility responses to the snowstorm. Connecticut, which had about 15 percent of customers blacked out, remained the worst-hit state from a storm that cut power to more than 3 million in the region.
Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen called for a probe on Thursday into whether CL&P was prepared to handle damage from the storm, which dropped a record amount of October snow in Hartford.
Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy said regulators should review a 2008 decision on required staffing levels for utility crews. Malloy has ordered a state task force already investigating power restoration in the wake of August’s Hurricane Irene to study the response to the snowstorm.
Snowstorm damage will exceed US$3 billion in Connecticut, more than the costs of Hurricane Irene, Malloy said at a press conference on Tuesday, citing a conversation with the state insurance commissioner.
CL&P, the state’s largest utility, will spend at least US$75 million to US$100 million on snowstorm-related repairs, Butler said at a press conference on Thursday. The damage caused by the storm was more significant than that caused by Hurricane Irene, which knocked out power to 730,000 homes and businesses in Connecticut, he said.
Irene cut electricity to an estimated 6.69 million customers across the Northeast, according to US Department of Energy figures.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said regulators in his state will review utility responses for a storm that knocked out power to 500,000 at its peak. About 98 percent of customers have been restored, Cuomo said on Friday in an e-mailed statement.
This review of the power utilities’ response to the heavy snow storm will help our state be better prepared for future storms and power outages, Cuomo said.
In Massachusetts, Governor Deval Patrick asked the state’s Department of Public Utilities to probe the storm response, Catherine Williams, a spokeswoman for the agency, said in a telephone interview.
All New Jersey customers affected by the storm will have their power restored by the end of the weekend, Governor Chris Christie said in a statement on Friday. About 21,400 customers have yet to get power back, he said.
At least 27 deaths, including one in Canada, were blamed on the storm because of traffic accidents, electrocutions and other causes, according to the Associated Press. Half of the eight reported deaths in Connecticut were caused by carbon monoxide poisoning as people seeking power and warmth failed to properly ventilate generators, stoves or car exhausts, Malloy said on Thursday.
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