Town: Lack of CLP Response Unacceptable

Update Friday 8 p.m.: 12 hours later Farmington is back up to 94 percent without power. 9 p.m.: Down to 82%.

Update Friday 8 a.m.: Unionville center has power and Farmington is down to 89 percent without power!

With the dubious honor of the most power outages and the least movement toward restoration, Farmington officials held a press conference Thursday afternoon to express their outrage with Connecticut Light and Power.

“The priorities that we set out for CL&P have not been met, we’ve not received reliable information… we’re at the point of outrage,” said Town Council chairman Mike Clark.

The Town of Farmington called the press conference at the Marriott, where out-of-state utility crews are staying, and was joined by Mark Zacchio, of the Avon Town Council, on the area’s sixth day without power.

“Until today, we really haven’t seen a lot of action in the town of Avon,” Zacchio said. He described neighborhoods unreachable by emergency vehicles because trees and power lines litter the roads. Residents have taken chainsaws to the blockages themselves.

The effort, which the towns’ public works department is willing to do, is hampered by the wires, which they said CL&P has done nothing about.

“I feel like we’re dealing with abrasions in the other parts of the state whereas the real mortal wound is here in the Farmington Valley,” Zacchio said.

The unanswered question is why? Though progress was made in almost every other town in the area, Farmington saw no improvement over the six days.

Officials are hoping speaking out publicly will move CL&P trucks into the area. And to some extent, Clark said it already was.

The town mentioned the press conference on a statewide conference call with CL&P and Gov. Dannel Malloy at noon today. After the call high-ranking CL&P officials called the town, the number of outages slowly started to decline and Malloy was on his way to tour the area.

Malloy reportedly was sending the National Guard to detail storm damage in the area.

“Farmington and Avon are ready to do our bit to help Farmington and Avon but we’re held hostage by the fact that there are just no crews in sight,” Clark said.