Whipping Winds, Heavy Rains Bring Down Trees, Wires

Emergency responders across town were put into action after gusty winds and heavy rains wreaked havoc on tree limbs and utility wires, closing down multiple roads Wednesday afternoon.

The weather station at Reed Intermediate School recorded wind gusts of 44 mph and rainfall of about 2.5 inches fell by about 4:30 p.m. Some town roadways also were reported to be experiencing flooding due to the heavy rains.

The Connecticut Light & Power Co. was reporting about 90 customers lost electricity in Newtown about 20,000 customers across the state reporting power loss. By 6:30 p.m., Newtown customers reporting outages had risen to 230 and the number of outages across the state were more than 21,000. By 8:30 p.m., Newtown outages had ballooned to more than 380.

The utility company said in the afternoon it opened its Emergency Operations Center in Berlin to respond to the multitude of calls across the state.

The bulk of the calls appeared to have come shortly after noon. Within a couple of hours, roads from Hawleyville to Sandy Hook were being closed due to downed tree limbs.

A downed tree on Jeremiah by Cobblers Mill road was among the early afternoon incidents followed a short while later with a downed tree on High Rock Road by Gray's Plain Road, another downed pine tree blocking half the roadway in front of 18 Gray's Plain Road and then later a similar incident on Walnut Tree Hill Road.

In Hawleyville, a small tree was reported to have fallen on wires by Old Bethel and Hawleyville roads and then later Obtuse Road by Pond Brook Road had to be closed due to a downed tree. Other parts of Pond Brook Road also were affected by storm damage.

In other parts of town, downed wires were reported on Head O'Meadow Road. In the borough, by the traffic island at the corner of Queen Street and Glover Avenue, a tree limb brought down wires. A short distance from there, a banner advertising the upcoming Holiday Festival that hangs over Queen Street flapped wildly in the wind threatening to dislodge itself.

The rains were expected to continue through Wednesday night, mainly by midnight. Gusts were expected to exceed 55 mph in some areas. Calm is expected to return Thursday, with a forecast calling for sun and a high of near 41 degrees.

Editor's note: This article has been updated with more recent Connecticut Light & Power outage numbers.