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Ice storm hits New EnglandMore freezing rain, snow in forecast
HARTFORD, Connecticut (CNN) -- New England is shivering after the first significant winter storm of the season hit the region Sunday, and hit it hard. At its peak, Connecticut Light and Power had 124,000 residential customers without electricity, said spokesman Bob Johnston. By 10 p.m. EST, that number had improved to about 80,000 customers without power, but Johnston predicted it would still be several days before power was restored to everyone. Central Maine Power Company could not give an estimate of the number of customers without power late Sunday, but the southern part of the state was worst affected. "We just do have some pretty extensive outages," said dispatcher Beau Condon. The company hopes to have everyone back online by midnight Monday, he said. "We're hoping." A winter storm warning reached from northern New York and central Massachusetts through New Hampshire, Vermont and most of Maine. A winter storm watch was in effect for western New York, and winter weather advisories dotted New England. Freezing rain followed by snow was forecast for much of the region, including western Connecticut, where the town of Torrington was coping with ice-snapped tree limbs and power outages. "Things are coming along here," said Sgt. Kerwin Anders of the Torrington Police Department. Shortly before midnight Saturday, all power was out in the city of 35,000. Fifty percent of customers, including the city's sizable senior citizen population, had their lights back on by 11 p.m. Sunday, Anders said. "Power's been restored to all the facilities that we have here for our elderly residents," he said. Two shelters remained open in town. Line crews in Connecticut and Massachusetts worked all day Sunday to restore electricity and repair hundreds of lines, poles and tree limbs downed by a coating of ice that caught many off guard. "This came much earlier than we thought," said CL&P's Johnston, who said his company had requested help from other regional power companies. In all, 13 towns in CL&P's service area lost 90 percent to 100 percent of electrical service because of the storm.
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