The Push is On

The storm is over, but work is only just begun to repair the damage left behind by the storm that left millions without power up and down the East Coast Sunday.

Hurricane Irene had been downgraded to a tropical storm by the time it entered Connecticut. But still it swept through leaving a path of destruction behind it, leveling shoreline homes and taking town massive trees.

In Hamden, more than 100 trees were felled by the storm, and at its height almost 12,000 were without power.

"Hamden has been hit very hard by this storm, particularly in certain areas of town," Leng said. Sunday night, close to half of the town was without power, he said, and though that number decreased Monday, still a quarter of the town was in the dark.

""We've been in constant contact with UI, but they don't have enough crews to address the outages all over the region," Leng said. 

"Public Works crews have worked through the night and all day to assess the safety," he said. They started at 2 a.m. Sunday morning, he said, and worked until 6 p.m. when it got too hazardous.

"They then returned to clear the roads," he said, "four crews of people, each with four trucks, went across the town to make the roads passable." That work went on into the night Sunday and resumed Monday, he said.

Mayor Scott Jackson spent the day Sunday monitoring conditions, Leng said.

"The mayor worked the emergency management center with staff throughout the day," Leng said, "and he led a series of visits to problem areas throughout town and addressed additional problem areas.

"Finally, the mayor called an emergency management team meeting to plan the overnight hours," Leng said, which included Public Works support throughout the night and additional attention by police to the many street lights that are out.

"He met personally with Hamden's UI team to discuss their plans to address the power outages and down wires throughout town," Leng said.

Residents should stay away from downed power lines and call 911 to report any other power line safety problems, he said.

Jackson, with other town officials, toured the town again Monday and are pushing UI officials to get power restored as soon as possible, Leng said. Between Sunday and Monday, power to 2,000 homes was restored, but more than 9,000 remained in the dark, according to UI reports.