Power Nearly Restored In New London

A week after Tropical Storm Irene brought widespread power outages across the state and region, Connecticut Light and Power has restored electricity to nearly all of its 13,744 customers in New London.

Five customers were still affected as of 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, according to CL&P's outage map. The map is compiled from outage reports made by customers.

Across the state, 3,453 customers did not have power. Jeff Butler, president and chief operating officers of CL&P, predicted Monday that all customers should be back online by midnight Wednesday.

"While we reached another one of our goals a full day ahead of time, I realize that is little comfort for those customers still without power," said Butler. "Our commitment is to continue working around the clock until every customer is restored."

CL&P reminds customers that if their neighbors have power to call CL&P at 800-286-2000 because customer-owned equipment — clevis (house knob), weatherheads, conduits, conductors and the meter box — could be damaged. That equipment must be repaired by a licensed electrician before CL&P can restore service. For more information on electric equipment customers are responsible for visit the company’s website.

In the wake of Irene, the federal government has declared the entire state a disaster area, which makes Connecticut eligible for federal aid to help in the cleanup and recovery efforts, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy announced Monday. The federal government declared five of the state’s eight counties disaster areas three days ago, but as of Sunday had added the three remaining counties, Hartford, Tolland and Windham, to the list.

Malloy and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano toured storm damage in East Haven on Monday as part of the storm recovery efforts.