Danbury Opening Roads, Power Coming Back, CL&P Sends Seven Crews

UPDATE: 6:00 p.m.

CL&P's latest figures show 16,930, an improvement over the 22,000+ reported this morning.

UPDATE: 5:39 p.m.

CL&P's latest figures show 18,430, an improvement over the 22,000+ reported this morning.

UPDATE: 2:35 p.m.

CL&P sent an additional seven line restoration crews to Danbury Tuesday to add to the make safe crew already in town. These teams include three tree crews, said Paul Estefan, Emergency Management Director.

The make safe team works with a tree crew and a Danbury tree crew to separate wires from trees and to make that process safe.

"We spent two hours reviewing the main service lines into Danbury to work on what we need to do to get our two reservoirs and sewer plant off back-up generator power," Estefan said. Marjorie and West Lake are on generators, as is the Danbury Sewer Plant on Plumtrees Road.

After reviewing Danbury's potential problem with relying on generators to run two of the city's reservoirs and its sewer treatment plant, CL&P agreed to send an additional seven power restoration crews and two more tree clearing crews to Danbury.

Estefan said the city and CL&P are also considering ways to reroute power to Marjorie Reservoir to get it back on line quicker.

Meanwhile, a large tree is blocking West Wooster Road inbetween Wooster Heights and Division Street, where a second tree has half of Division Street blocked.

Power is out to both Crosby Manor and Wooster Manor, two housing authority properties on West Wooster Street and Wooster Street.

UPDATE: 12:38 p.m.

"This is a lot like last Halloween," said Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton. "We have too many streets out to make up a list. For every one we clear, we find two more. They're minor streets, but there are dozens of them."

Boughton said the city will decide on school openings on a day-by-day basis, and today the city decided schools are closed Wednesday.

Boughton said it is probably too dangerous for children to go Trick or Treating on Halloween (Wednesday,) but he doesn't know about Saturday yet.

"We're where we were last year. We have trees down wrapped in wires. We have one CL&P crew in Danbury. They're doing what they can."

In other news, the Greenknoll Branch of the WMCA is open, but the Bethel Grassy Plain facility and the Boughton Street Y are closed. Classes at Escape to the Arts is closed.

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UPDATE: Noon.

Danbury Schools are closed Wednesday and dozens of streets are closed in town. The city will make the schools decision day to day after this.

AAA office on Lake Avenue Ext. is open today, said William Seymour, state Department of Motor Vehicles spokesman.

"Some AAA Offices Open for DMV Services, Tuesday, the Department of Motor Vehicles announced. The AAA offices open are located in Danbury, Cromwell, Enfield, Hamden, Manchester, Milford, Plainville, Stamford, Waterbury and West Hartford.

AAA offices provide renewals and duplicates for driver licenses and state-issued ID cards. For more information on AAA and DMV office locations please visit http://ct.gov/dmv/offices."

The list of roads closed by trees or downed wires or both was 13 streets long as of 10 a.m., and that list grew to dozens by noon. could grow even while roads are being cleared.

CL&P is reporting 22,459 homes without power in Danbury, or 63 percent of CL&P's customers. While driving across Danbury at about 9 a.m., power was out along Mill Plain Road, Scuppo Road, Westville Avenue, Stadley Rough and Driftwood Point.

The closed streets as of 10 a.m. are Hayestown Road, Spruce Mountain Road, Long Crest and Myrtle, Barnum Road, Washington Avenue, Joe's Hill Road, Driftway Road, Glen Road, Franklin Street Ext., Padanaram Road, Old Ridgebury Road, Brushy Hill Road and Stadley Rough near Sil-Cam. This list is being worked on constantly. Since speaking to PJ Prunty in the Mayor's office, Sil-Cam Drive opened, and Great Plain closed.

While the Danbury Public Works Department was clearing a downed evergreen on Sil-Cam Drive, a second evergreen was leaning and in danger of falling.

Around the corner at 45 Stadley Rough, the road was closed by yet another evergreen that fell across the road and onto wires. That road is closed. Sil-Cam was open before 9 a.m.

The state Department of Motor Vehicles will resume emissions testing as of noon Tuesday, according to a release from DMV Spokesman William Seymour.

"Emissions Testing to Re-Open Statewidefor Stations Able to Conduct Testing

WETHERSFIELD – Department of Motor Vehicles has announced that emissions testing will resume statewide at noon for all stations able to do testing. Consult ctemissions.com or call 888-828-8399 for a list of testing stations. Consumers are encouraged to call the selected station before visiting to determine whether it is operating. For further information, consumers can visit ctemissions.com."