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.

Feels like February again.. cold weather is back.

Over the weekend Middletown experienced a taste of spring sunshine, but its time to break out the jackets; this week feels more like winter again. If you got your spring hair cut too early, bundle up!

Waiting for Hurricane Irene

Being over prepared is always better than being under prepared. Today at Stop and Shop many shoppers were in a frenzy stocking up on items in preparation. As of 3:00pm today the store was out of propane; it is a good idea to call ahead to see if the store has gotten another delivery. Not to insight panic, but as you can see in the photos of the beverage isle , and the paper products isle, bottled water and paper towels are particularly popular items.

This afternoon I plan to curl up and finish reading "The Great Hurricane of 1938" by Cheri Burns which I have found to be a phenomenal read taking the reader thru an hour by hour account of the hurricane that devastated New England and killed nearly 700 residents on September 20th of 1938.What I really like about this specific book as opposed to the few others arecalling the event, is that Burns includes a bibliography of all the

direct quotes she took from newspaper accounts of the day.

I blogged about my grandfather's recollection of the hurricane last year before Hurricane Earl: http://middletowneyenews.blogspot.com/2010/09/sohow-about-that-hurricane-earl.html.He recalls the jubilation when a chicken truck tipped over on Court Street scattering poultry which found their way to many hungry residents' dinner tables as a result.

Will Irene be a hundred year storm? Let's hope not. Be safe.

Off Topic

An earthquake is reported to have hit the Virginia / Washington D.C. area just before 2 p.m.and reports of feeling the tremors are coming in from areas near Hartford. Extent of damage and more details are not yet known. Have any Eye readers felt anything around Middletown or have any experiences to share about this?