Conn. Winds Knock Out Power to 85,000

A rainstorm with some wind gusts hitting nearly 80 mph downed trees and power lines across Connecticut Thursday morning, leaving more than 85,000 homes and businesses without power and causing school cancellations and delays. No serious injuries were reported.

Gusts were strongest along the shoreline. The wind hit 78 mph in Westbrook at about 5:20 a.m., and another gust in Madison was clocked at 73 mph at 5:25 a.m., according to the National Weather Service.

Utility crews worked through the morning and afternoon to restore power.

Connecticut Light & Power Co., which serves more than 1 million customers in the state, reported 46,325 remaining outages early Thursday afternoon, down from about 72,500 earlier in the day. The United Illuminating Co. had about 5,000 remaining outages, down from about 12,900.

Downed trees and power lines forced the closure of numerous roads and prompted school officials in many towns to cancel classes or delay openings. Some trees and limbs fell on a few homes and cars.

A home in Lebanon was heavily damaged by fire after a tree fell onto it during high winds. One resident home at the time was able to escape with his two dogs and two cats. Investigators are trying to determine if the fallen tree caused the fire.

Police said utility wires fell on school buses in Hartford and East Hartford, but no one was hurt.

Metro-North trains on the New Haven Line were delayed by 30 minutes because of the storm, but returned to normal service. Metro-North stopped train service on the New Canaan branch and replaced it with buses for a while because of power problems.

This article appeared in print on page 5 of the February 1st, 2013 edition of Hamodia.