Riding Out the Aftermath of Hurricane Irene

Waterford residents brave long lines for coffee and cold showers in the morning but most are adjusting to life without power.

When Dakota Damon left his home in Quaker Hill to go in search of breakfast on Monday, the 20-year-old says he had to slam on the brakes to avoid hitting a power line-bearing utility pole that had split in two across his driveway.

Like many Waterford residents, he spent the morning navigating his way around closed roads and fallen trees. His quest for food took him all over the area, until he finally found a Friendly’s Restaurant with a line that didn’t stretch forever, although he says the wait was still “hours.”

Damon’s experience was hardly unique and pretty much what might be expected one day after a hurricane. But although many people lost phone service, not everyone is sitting in the dark.

Aside from the blustery weather and the nonstop coverage of Hurricane Irene on the television, Sunday was just another day for many Waterford residents. Anyone living along Niantic River Road, Oswegatchie Road, Great Neck Road, or Route 156 and their many side streets, however, was without power from the early morning on.

With power knocked out to Waterford’s Community Center and Waterford Public Library, many of those people spent the day at the East Lyme Community Center and Public Library. They came in to charge cell phones, to plug in laptops and get online.  

For the most part, people seemed to be taking the whole experience in stride. Some even said they rather enjoyed being offline. It’s nice to unplug every once in a while, one man noted, adding that he was quite happy not to have power as long as he could find a sports bar with the football game on.

Other people had planned ahead. Donald Connors, who lives on Fulmore Drive off Niantic River Road, went out Saturday and bought a generator to ensure his sump pump would keep working.

“I was lucky,” says Connors. “I got the last one. My main concern was if we lost power and the basement flooded.”

Although the storm didn’t bring enough rain to flood the basement, at least now his family has enough power to run the fridge, the microwave, and the television—a definite plus as he has two young grandchildren in the house. They’re all still sitting around in the dark, however, because they can only plug in a certain number of appliances. As the hot water heater is hardwired to the house, they’re boiling water on the grill to bathe the kids.

Running Water

Few people relish the idea of taking cold showers but with power predicted to be out in some places until Saturday, we’re all going to be pretty ripe if we don’t take the plunge sooner or later. To help out, Planet Fitness in Waterford has opened its locker rooms to allow nonmembers to use the showers.

Of course, some people consider themselves lucky just to have running water. Anyone with a well who didn’t stock up on water beforehand lost that when the power went out. A steady stream of people coming to the East Lyme Community Center from Old Lyme arrived with empty water bottles to fill.  

Scams?

Although the hurricane didn’t bring massive amounts of rain and only caused only isolated flooding, it succeeded in ripping up a number of trees. In the aftermath, a number of people have been going door-to-door offering tree removal services. Be aware, however, that some of these offers may not be as well-intentioned as they seem.

At least one elderly resident reported that a couple came by offering to remove a large tree that fell in her yard for $800. That seemed a high price to charge to cut up a tree that has already fallen, especially when it’s wood that can be resold. Many professional tree companies will do the job for considerably less.

The town of Waterford had people working overtime to clear roads of fallen branches on Monday but it will take a while longer to restore the power losses caused by the trees felled by Irene. One CL&P employee who didn’t want to give his name said that in the 37 years he’d worked for the power company, this was the worst power outage he’d seen. “It’s worse than Gloria,” he said, referring to the last hurricane to hit Connecticut.

Workers Out/ People In Trouble

Power line workers and official emergency responders weren’t the only people called to respond to emergencies during the hurricane. People who work for medical supply companies, particularly those that provide oxygen tanks that need to be plugged in, said their phones were ringing off the hook even before the hurricane hit.

“As they lost power, people panicked,” said Beth Connors, who works for one of the two main suppliers in the area.

Once Irene struck with full force, drivers for these companies braved high winds, rain-drenched highways and flooded back roads to reach people in towns from Stratford to Stonington to bring additional oxygen tanks to people who had lost power. Connors says she was stunned to find many elderly people in assisted living facilities were sitting alone in the dark without power to keep their oxygen tanks running.

“One woman could barely push the button on her flashlight,” Connors says. “They should at least have a generator in the common living area. They certainly need power or a very good plan if they don’t have power.”

One man who came into the East Lyme Library on Monday to use his laptop said he found his elderly mother in a similar situation and convinced her to evacuate to the shelter set up for area residents at the East Lyme Middle School. The assisted-living facility may not have earned high marks in his book, but the shelter certainly did for being well-organized and well-run, offering good food and safe harbor in the storm.

Food

Locally, most people decided to ride the storm out at home but as soon as Irene passed, they left in droves to find places with power and hot food. Crown Pizza on the Post Road was slammed from 11 a.m. until 6 p.m., at which point the owners had to take the phone off the hook because they couldn’t take any more orders.

“At 7 p.m., we had to put up the closed sign,” says Taso Vitsas, whose family owns the business. “We ran out of everything.”

Taso’s mother, Tina, said her one regret was that they had nothing to feed the AT&T workers when they showed up hungry at 9:30 p.m. However, she added, all her customers were very understanding and even pitched in to clear tables as dishes stacked up in piles in the kitchen.

“It was probably the craziest day ever,” said Taso. “It would have been nice to go home to a house with power after that,” he adds, “but we didn’t.”