Power Restoration Will Take Until Saturday [UPDATE]

Updated: 7:50 a.m., Nov. 2:

Repairs and restoration of power in Greenwich continue. As of 7:45 a.m., there are 1,196 or 4 percent of Connecticut Light & Power customers without power. At the height of the outage more than 5,000 Greenwich customers were powerless.

Updated: 2:10 p.m.

It looks like town residents will have to endure another couple days before the power is restored by Connecticut Light & Power. And for some, the power may not be turned on until Saturday.

According to the latest information released by First Selectman Peter Tesei's office, "CL&P is currently projecting that 99 percent of the town customers will have their power restored by Thursday at 11 p.m.. CL&P is projecting 100 percent restoration by the end of the day Saturday."

Despite many roadway obstructions throughout town, most are passable. Current road closures include Serenity Lane, Ferncliff Road, Lockwood Lane, Marks Road, Baldwin Farms Drive South, and Baldwin Farms Drive North. Some of the roads where CL& P crews are working are Orchard Street, Lake Avenue, North Street and Clapboard Ridge Road.

Patch will continue to provide details as they become available.

Updated 8:25 a.m.

The Bendheim Western Greenwich Civic Center warming center has been closed, according to the Town of Greenwich website. The new location for the warming center is the Red Cross chapter house at 99 Indian Field Rd. (Tel. 203-869-8444). It will open for residents at 9 a.m. Tuesday for residents to charge their electronic communication devices and find water and snacks. Additionally, the Greenwich Main Library will be open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. with the Byram and Cos Cob branches also operating during normally scheduled hours.

According to Connecticut Light & Power, 2,834 of the 27,910 customers - or about 10 percent - remain without power. There are three impassable roads  - Dekraft Road, Stag Lane and Cameron Drive. On Dekraft, crews are working to repair a water main break.

Original story:

The sounds of chain saws and generators were about the only thing one could hear traveling through Greenwich Monday.

In the noisy wake of the freak Halloween weekend snowstorm, Greenwich residents tried to assume some semblance of normalcy.

In Old Greenwich, a tree crew from the Department of Public Works made quick work of downed trees and limbs on Keofferam Road. "We've been out here since about 1 o'clock Saturday," said crew foreman John Brander. "They're tired. We've been working 14 hours on, 5 hours off," Brander said amid the din of chain saws.

He said that the most damage cause by the heavy, wet snow was "above the (Merritt) Parkway. The shoreline didn;t get hit that hard." Nonetheless, his crew was enlisted by passersby like Frank Anselmo, a Park and Recreation Commission member, who asked Brander and his crew to cut down "a hanger" a few doors away. "The resident is concerned about the branch, especially with the kids coming out" for Halloween tricks and treats.

According to Brander, most damage was caused by hardwood trees such as maples, oaks anad cherry trees - including the tree the crew was cutting in front of 9 Keofferam Rd.

He said, "Anything with leaves on it, with the wet snow - the hardwoods - came down." He estimated that it will take about a month for DPW crews to complete the pickup of storm debris, which dovetails with the annual leaf pickup that's scheduled to begin Nov. 7.

Meanwhile, it was a desolate neighborhood in the mid-country area of Mimosa Drive where two Connecticut Light & Power crews replaced downed poles and circuits. Amid colorful foliage, workers toiled at reconnecting wires amid the drone of residents' generators and sports radio news blaring from the cabs of the bright yellow repair trucks.

Brander said town tree crews cleared the roads of fallen trees so that electrical crews could repair lines to about 200 customers in the area.

Crews used shovels and sweepers to clear the snow from Cardinal Stadium at Greenwich High School in preparation of the Cardinals' postponed game against Stamford's Westhill High School later in the day. .

Most of Greenwich's roads were passable late Monday but about 10 percent of 2,851 customers remained without power shortly after 12 a.m. Tuesday.