Politics & Government
UPDATE: Power Restored To New London After Gas Leak
A severed gas line in a vacant building downtown led to evacuations and power to the majority of New London shut off as repairs were made.
NEW LONDON, CT — A gas leak on Bank Street caused evacuations and, the power was shut down by Eversource for the entire city as repairs were made to the severed gas line, power company spokesman Mitch Gross told Patch.
Wednesday afternoon, a contractor working inside a vacant building on the corner of Bank and State streets in downtown New London "severed" a gas line.
Gross said power had to be shut down leaving more than 60 percent of the city without power.
Find out what's happening in New Londonfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Shoreline East Trains stopped running. The New London train station, which services Amtrak and Shoreline East, was without power hence no trains service.
Due to a gas leak in the area, the New London train station is without power. There is currently no impact to the train service. 2019-10-09 16:10:59
— CTrail Shore Line East Alerts (@SLEalerts) October" class="redactor-linkify-object">https://twitter.com/SLEalerts/... 9, 2019
Find out what's happening in New Londonfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Fire Chief Thomas Curcio told The Day that as a result of the severed line, leaking gas was at levels Curcio said were at "explosive levels."
Gross said that the fire department evacuated nearby buildings and that "gas readings were high." He said Eversource crews shut down the power, throwing 10,000 customers in the city, or nearly 65 percent of all power company customers, in the dark. so to speak.
Gross said that the power was shut off as a "safety precaution."
In addition to the thousands in New London without power, hundreds in Montville and a thousand or more in Waterford too were sans lights.
Gross said that as repairs were undertaken, by 4:30, power had been restored to all but a handful of customers.
Power is out in New London from a gas leak on Bank and State Streets pic.twitter.com/Yu3uCqZLkn
— Carmen Chau (@CChauFOX61) October" class="redactor-linkify-object">https://twitter.com/CChauFOX61... 9, 2019
"We were able to quickly" resolve the temporary crisis, he said.
UPDATE: Eversource was forced to shut down power to the entire city of New London following this major gas leak: https://t.co/HWy3mqb8HV https://t.co/KN9TiC9yWK
— WFSB Channel 3 (@WFSBnews) October" class="redactor-linkify-object">https://twitter.com/WFSBnews/s... 9, 2019
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