UPDATE: Residents Still in the Dark and Frustrated with Slow Storm Response

UPDATE: Friday, 2:00 p.m.

Resident Steve Symonds reports that CL&P has revised their estimated power restoration time for the Thayer Pond/Cheesespring area to 4 p.m. this afternoon.

Also, some great reader/resident contributions. This gem from Facebook:

Amy Landau Foodman It's fun packing the kids for camp in a house with no toilets. Hard to iron name labels without electricity.

And new reader-submitted pictures from Linden Tree Road. As one resident pointed out, there was never a tornado confirmed in Wilton, but it sure as heck looks like one touched down.

UPDATE: Friday, 7:50 a.m.

There are currently 500 customers in Wilton without power according to Mitch Gross of CL&P, almost all of whom are concentrated in the southwest corner of town near the New Canaan border around Mariomi Road.

He said the continuing outages were attributal to additional damage that crews discovered late last night and early this morning.

"It's not particularly hard to access," Gross said. "It's just an issue of getting it all cleaned up."

Gross couldn't put a time on the fix but was fairly certain the work should be completed at some point on Friday.

As of Friday morning, CL&P has restored power to some 90,000 homes around the region. And they may have more work ahead of them this weekend.

Meanwhile, Weather.com is calling for more thunderstorms to roll into the area Friday evening and again on Sunday. More severe weather could easily undo much of the work CL&P has accomplished in getting power restored over the last few days.

"We're certainly keeping an eye on the forecast," Gross said with chuckle.

Residents are also reporting that the Lake Club is still closed because of the power outage.

UPDATE: Friday, 6:59 a.m.

CL&P's Mitch Gross said that outages in Wilton have dropped again to 502. He was headed into a meeting and will provide more details shortly.

This should be said for CL&P: whatever you think of their response times and services otherwise, they have been extremely good about returning calls and disseminating what information they have.

And more from Facebook and Ridgefield Road:

Amy Sullivan Things I love: 1. Losing power. 2. Bumming showers from generous families. 3. Sleeping without my nightlight. 4. Being awoken by the sounds of my mother screaming at Connecticut Light and Power at 8 am. Cheers.

Lee Aydelotte Boffey house lit up like a Christmas tree! I didn't know what lights were on, and thought I had shut them all off. I guess the damage to Ridgefield road was really bad.

UPDATE: Friday, 6:25 a.m.

Connecticut Light & Power said "most" of their customers would have power by late Thursday night, which proved true. Outside of town, the largest number that remained in the dark were 326 residents in Stamford.

For Wilton, however, that proved not to be the case, as 651 people (around nine percent of customers in town) were still without power for well into the second day. That number is actually an increase from last night's 498.

Calls are in to CL&P. No one is in their media relations room yet.

Police are reporting that Deforest Lane and Road are both still closed, as are Forest Lane and Cheesespring/Westfiled. The town's "continually updated" list of road closures, however, has not been continually updated. It still shows 13 closures.

There was this uplifting Facebook message just after 6 a.m. this morning.

Donna Harakas Power on Ridgefield Road just came on!! Yayyyy!!

UPDATE: 11:04 p.m.

Many residents around Wilton are reporting power has been restored.

The exception is perhaps the worst outage area on Ridgefield Road. CL&P insists that they still expect to have the area fixed within the next few hours.

The town's road closure page has not yet been updated.

CL&P is reporting only 498 outages (seven percent) left.

A few Facebook messages:

Corey Knight Bates power back!

Corey Knight Bates little over 30 hours without it, seems branch brook always takes the longest... :)

Sheri Elsberry Burgess POwer just came on in the Hillbrook Road Nod Hill Neighborhood after 30 hours of being out !

Lee Aydelotte Boffey Not here on ridgefield road !16 minutes ago · LikeUnlike ·

Donna Harakas We are still waiting on Ridgefield Road.

Sheri Elsberry Burgess POwer just came on in the Hillbrook Road Nod Hill Neighborhood after 30 hours of being out !

UPDATE: 5:02 p.m.

CL&P's Mitch Gross called Patch to report that there are "quite a few crews" now at the Ridgefield Road and Pimpewaug Road locations.

He said the Ridgefield Road's downed trees and wires have accounted for 1,000 outages and the Pimpewaug Road damage has accounted for an additional 700 outages, which make up the bulk of lost power in Wilton.

"That's a major chunk of the outages in town," he said. "We've had multiple crews on them all day. We're still pushing to get the majority of customers back up late tonight."

Gross could not specify how the response has been from Wilton Department of Public Works crews, though he did say the company is typically in touch with town crews to coordinate cleanup efforts.

"The only thing I can tell you is that the has been a lot of damage and there are a lot of people working on that damage," Gross said.

Wilton DPW Director Tom Thurkettle was not available for comment this afternoon.

Gross added that anyone concerned their area of town may not have been reported as having an outage should be sure to call CL&P at (800) 286-2000.

UPDATE: 4:52 p.m.

CL&P spokesman Chuck Tilghman said that they expect "the majority of our customers will have power by late tonight."

The company has restored power to 68,000 people so far and "will work until every customer has electricity again," according to Tilghman.

When told that areas around Wilton, particularly around Route 33, seem to have extensive damage and are still without crews working on them, Tilghman did say that the estimated time of power restoration was "not for everybody, it's for the majority."

So some Wiltonians could still be without power through tomorrow, with no definite time set for a fix.

UPDATE: 4:37 p.m.

The Wilton Police Department dispatcher reports that the list of road closures, which stands at 13, is up to date and is not expected to change any time soon.

As resident frustration grows, town officials have been difficult to contact for updates. There was no one at the police department available to offer public information and callers were told to try to contact the department again tomorrow morning at 8 a.m., somewhat curious during an emergency that is affecting the town so widely.

UPDATE: 4:25 p.m.

Residents are getting frustrated at the apparently slow response time to some major road closures and power outages. What is arguably the biggest closure, a tree and wires on Route 33, is reportedly still without crews working on it.

Below are some resident reports from Facebook. And we thank these on-the-scene reporters for helping keep us and everyone else up to date.

Sheri Elsberry Burgess especially the branch down on wires at Nod Hill & Ridgefield road ..Take Olmstead hill if u r coming to or from Nod Hill Road 51 minutes age

Sheri Elsberry Burgess We live off Nod hill & have already been out nearly 24 hours !50 minutes ago

Lee Aydelotte Boffey Frustrating to drive by the tree and wires down on 33 near deforest. Not a single crew is there and this is a major road. Been without power for almost 24 hrs and it doesn't look good getting it back anytime soon.

UPDATE: 3:15 p.m.

CL&P's Mitch Gross said Wilton's high number of outages are attributable to "extensive tree damage in town." CL&P crews have had difficulty navigating widespread road closures.

Gross said most if not all CL&P customers should have power restored by "late Thursday night."

Meanwhile, the Wilton Police Department has posted a list of thirteen different road closures in town.

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At their highest, power outages from Wednesday's storms affected more than 2,500 Wiltonians, or a third of CL&P customers in town.

CL&P spokespeople said power was expected to be restored by the end of the day Thursday. But the severity of the outages was due mostly to the fact that the company could not dispatch work crews until this morning, after the severe thunderstorms had passed.

Wilton police distributed a notification this morning at 8:30 a.m. saying that the town "has many road closures due to last nights (sic) storm," and that "Ridgefield Rd (Rt 33) is closed from Drum Hill Rd to Millstone Rd due to several trees and wires down."

They added that there are many other roads in town that are partially and fully blocked.

In a reverse of the storm systems that crippled much of Fairfield County but left Wilton largely unscathed in Marcy, the town seems to have borne the brunt of Thursday's weather, which included both a tornado warning and severe thunderstorm warnings for much of the evening.

CL&P spokeswoman Katie Blint said the northwest to southeast direction of the storm caused the greatest damage in Westport, Wilton and Stamford and added that the company hopes to have everyone's power reconnected by 5 p.m.

Blint said CL&P has 130 crews working throughout the state, including 80 from sister companies Western Massachusetts Electric and Public Service of New Hampshire. She said CL&P is still receiving calls of downed wire. The number to call to report an outage is (800) 286-2000.

Residents, via Twitter, Facebook and other online mediums reported "golf ball-sized hail" in town and roads littered with debris for the better part of the evening.

Here is a sample of some of the more elucidating tweets from Wednesday:

GreenBeingMom    Holy big drops of rain! Ok, not gonna need to water the garden! Lights flickering & kids r scared quiet! Hope it passes fast!

GreenBeingMom    Biggest hail I've ever seen!!! My kids r glued to me! My girl is saying "Nature's Fireworks" she learned that from camp @ Woodcock :)

reverend_bunnie    Torrential downpour and i am trapped in the barn, in the dark. No signs of letting up soon.

melissafriedman    Golfball szed hail is coming down!

reverend_bunnie    Electricity! Yay!!

ccase22    thunderstorm!

GreenBeingMom    Trees down on Silver Spring Rd in Wilton. Can't get out of my neighborhood to get my man. I heard 33 is blocked off in more than one place

planeliker    Tree down on the Merritt Northbound. Between exits 35 and 36

After_Words    The storm/storms is/are really messing with bedtime.

For those in need of an outlet or two to charge cell phones, laptops and other electronic items, the Wilton Library has offered up its services (as usual) from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Thursday.

CL&P, meanwhile, is still reporting over 2,400 power outages in town, which amounts to 34 percent of its Wilton customers.