Thunderstorm Topples Trees; 2,700 Middletown Customers Lose Power

UPDATE: At 10am on Wednesday, reported outages were down to 691. 

An uprooted tree on the Wesleyan campus.

Eversource crew on Country Club Rd about 8pm.

A quick but fierce summer thunderstorm blew through town Tuesday, uprooting trees, snapping power lines and snarling rush hour traffic.  Just before 5pm, thunder rumbled and the skies darkened. Twenty minutes later the storm was gone, but danger and chaos remained in its wake.

Mayor Dan Drew said some minor injuries from car accidents and other storm-related incidents were reported, but he was not aware of any serious health threats.

"The outages are slowly but steadily coming down" he said. "We're hoping everyone will be restored by some time in the morning. We'll have to see."

As of 10:30 pm, the Eversource energy company listed 2,262 customers (about 10% of Middletown customers) as without power. That was down from a peak of 2700 according to the mayor, who told The Eye that the South Farms section of town was particularly hard hit. Route 9 southbound near CVH was blocked due to storm damage, with reports of traffic backed up from Silver Street all the way into Cromwell.

But damage was widespread. Shortly after 5pm, Westfield Street was closed, with east-bound traffic diverted to Route 66/Washington Street at Ballfall Road. Drivers headed downtown soon found out that Washington Street was also shut down, between Butternut St. and Newfield St (Route 3). A normally 20-minute drive across town became an almost hour-long crawl through side streets.

Tree branches litter Veterans' Green.
(Click to embiggen.)

Drew said he ordered the city's Emergency Operations Center opened about 5:15, just after the storm hit the city. By 7pm, city dispatchers had handled 496 calls about situations that required police, firefighters, or other emergency services. The 496 number includes multiple calls for the same incident (for instance, several calls for one downed power line). Still, it was an intense rush of serious calls, spread throughout the city, and virtually all at once.

The EOC was closed down at about 10pm. The mayor said extra police were called in to safeguard hazards and direct traffic. He said Eversource had told him they were sending additional line crews to speed repairs.

(Click to embiggen.)

Trees branches littered Veterans Green along Washington Terrace, and large trees were snapped or uprooted near Wesleyan's Center for the Arts.

Surrounding towns were also hard hit.  The Middletown Press reported that Coginchaug High School's graduation ceremony was postponed due to the widespread power outages in Durham.

Looking for a silver lining? The forecast for Wednesday is beautiful.

Presenting the Genealogy of Middletown’s Mayor

How does this 1885 Italian record relate to the Mayor of Middletown?

Presenting the Genealogy of Middletown’s Mayor

This picture is one of many documents that Mayor Daniel Drew will see when he attends a presentation about his family history on July 25 at the Godfrey Memorial Library.  Anyone interested in learning about the mayor's genealogy is welcome to come!

            Expert volunteer genealogists from the Godfrey Memorial Library spent more than 40 hours researching Mayor Drew’s genealogy.  In charge of researching Italian records was Barbara Prymas, whose search took her through a variety of documents.  Two beautiful handwritten finds were a marriage record for his great-great grandparents’ marriage and his great-great-great grandfather’s death record, both from the 1880s.     

            Much of this research was done using the Godfrey Library’s impressive collection of genealogical resources.  Founded in 1947 by senior Wesleyan librarian A. Fremont Rider, the Godfrey Library has had over sixty years to amass a massive collection of historical and genealogical materials.  The bulk of the works are concerned with the history of New England Families.  Patrons can browse the library’s collection themselves or request a search to be done by an experienced genealogist for a small fee.  Anyone can subscribe to the library’s digital database, the recently revamped Godfrey Scholar+ program, to access valuable genealogical resources through their computer.

            On July 25 staff at the Godfrey Library will be presenting their findings to Mayor Drew.  You can be here too and learn about Mayor Drew’s genealogy!  Members of the public are welcome to attend the presentation, which will take place at 9:00 AM in the Godfrey Library, located at 134 Newfield Street, Middletown.

Mayoral Benefit Gala Tickets Available

From the mayor's office.
-------------------
Mayor Daniel T. Drew is reminding all members of the community that the seventh annual Mayoral Benefit Gala, to benefit Amazing Grace Food Pantry and Middletown High Goes to the Symphony will be held on Saturday, June 2, 20l2 at 7:00 pm. at the Middletown Elks Lodge.

Tickets are selling quickly and there is less than one week left to purchase them.

Diamond Sponsors this year are: Nora Cupcake, Eli Cannons, Pratt & Whitney and Rose Kallor and we thank them for their dedication to supporting our community, as well as the many other donors to our benefit!

Please Contact the Mayor's Office at 860-344-3401 to purchasing tickets.

Schools PTAs Urge Parents to Support School Budget

The Board of Education goes before the Common Council this evening at 7pm to make its case for the 2012-2013 School Budget.  Mayor Drew said he would flat fund the educational budget on April 3rd, which would mean cuts of almost $3.5 million to amount the BOE has asked for.

School PTAs are urging parents to attend tonight's meeting to show support for the budget as proposed.  Interim Superintendent Dr. David Larson is expected to comment on at least the following arguments in support of a fully funded budget:

·         A 0% increase is less than a current services budget because of salary and benefit contracted increases.
·         78% of the education budget goes to instruction
·         75% of the budget is for salaries and insurance benefits
·         Maintain class size
·         Need for school librarians/media specialists to support the implementation of the common core – new national standards for education.
·         Need for interventionists to support our required SRBI (Scientifically Researched Based Intervention) implementation and the Common Core.
·         Update of our Student Information System to Power School to improve communication with parents and students as well as organization and access of student data (i.e. grades, enrollment, attendance…).

On April 17th, former BOE Chairman Ted Raczka, now the Budget Committee Chair, commented on what the loss of millions would do to the school budget:  "Extra-curricular activities will start to go, and if we're short millions, we will have to look at staffing levels.  Most of our retirements were done last year, and so it's not a good picture."  Raczka went on to say, "The reason I'm sitting over here at the end of the table [referring to where he sits at BOE meetings] is because I want to see money spent in classrooms.  I don't care about politics.  If you look at our funding compared to other communities, we're not getting it, and we're going to suffer because of that."


Raczka mentioned that he thought the Common Council would put some of the money back, but in the end, Middletown as a whole has to be serious about funding a quality education.


{Author's Note:  If you don't know what Common Core refers to, it's the new national standards for education coming out of DC.  Connecticut adopted the standards on July 7, 2010.  Click here for more information.}