6:59 p.m.: Connecticut Transit just announced: “All bus service, including CTtransit local and express and CTfastrak services, will be suspended state-wide from 2:00am Saturday, Jan. 29, to 3 a.m. Sunday January 30th due to the approaching winter storm. 6:57 p.m.: Palmer’s Market will open at 10 a.m., Saturday, due to the weather, the supermarket announced on Facebook. 4:47 p.m.: Metro-North is suspending service on the New Canaan Branch on Saturday, and trains on the New Haven Line and other lines will be running hourly, the railroad has announced. “Avoid unnecessary travel tomorrow.
Hindley School won’t be in session tomorrow because the school’s electric system broke down (causing the fire alarm to go off) due to Tropical Storm Ida, Superintendent Alan Addley said Thursday in a message to parents and staff. Students and staff were evacuated from the building. The electrical system — specifically something called the “generator transfer switch” — wasn’t able to be fixed Thursday, Addley said, because there is so much demand for repair work in the area — again, due to Ida — that a licensed electrician wasn’t available Thursday to fix the problem. By the time the long Labor Day weekend is over (lengthened by a day because of the Rosh Hashanah Jewish holiday on Tuesday), Hindley should be open with the rest of the schools in the district on Wednesday, Addley said. The lost day will have to be made up later in the school year, because state rules mandate that school days lost for weather-related reasons don’t count toward the minimum number of days schools must be open in each school year, the superintendent said.
In the seven hours between 7 p.m. Wednesday and 2 a.m. Thursday, Tropical Storm Ida dumped more than 8 inches of rain on Darien, leading to downed trees and wires, First Selectman Jayme Stevenson said late Thursday morning. At midnight, the first selectman declared a Local Emergency in town. Police responded to 21 incidents related to the weather and rescued people from two vehicles stuck in water — but there were no injuries reported in town, Stevenson said in a Code Red message to Darien residents. The damage also led to road closures on Tokeneke Road near the Interstate 95 entrance and exit and on Casement Street, Stevenson said. Small private bridges at homes in town, were also damaged, she said.
Tropical Storm Henri brought some expected flooding to Darien, but with a right turn it ended up a bit farther from here, so wind and rain are well under the worst scenarios that meteorologists said were possible. Town beaches are closed, and expected flooding at Pear Tree Point Beach occurred, First Selectman Jayme Stevenson said in a 1 p.m. Code Red message to the town. “The storm is still expected to bring us bands of heavy rain and winds of 15 to 25 mph with gusts up to 35 mph this afternoon. Coastal, river and stream flooding and power outages from downed trees should be expected,” Stevenson said in the message. As of 1:37 p.m., Eversource reported no customers without power in Darien, fewer than two each in New Canaan and Norwalk, and only 63 in Stamford.
Eversource, the electric utility covering nearly all of Connecticut, says its improving the way it prepares for and reacts to storms like the devastating Tropical Storm Isaias, which hit the state hard one year ago, on Aug. 4 and 5, 2020. Several days later, 130,000 Connecticut customers were still without power after wind, rain and falling branches and trees damaged electricity lines throughout the state. The utility was criticized for not getting service back. In an announcement, Eversource described a number of changes and improvements made to its storm response procedures over the past 12 months.
UPDATE, 3:22 p.m. — Darien Library is closing two hours early, at 4 p.m., Friday, “due to inclement weather,” the library said in an announcement. As of 3:07 p.m., according to Eversource, 18 of their customers in Darien were still without power. In an announcement, the utility said:
“Hundreds of Eversource line and tree workers, supported by utility crews from as far away as Texas, Michigan, Indiana and Ohio, are working to restore power following Tropical Storm Elsa. “As of 3 p.m., more than 13,000 customers have had their power restored since the storm began, while crews are working to address the 6,000 outages currently on the system. “’The storm has delivered the expected heavy rains, further saturating grounds that were already soaked from this week’s thunderstorms, and we have the possibility of some more thunderstorms tonight,’ said Craig Hallstrom, Eversource president of regional electric operations.
Eversource is trimming and removing trees in Darien this month and in June as part of its ongoing work to reduce power outages during storms, and the utility has released a list of some streets where the tree work will take place. “In Darien, we’re doing tree work along some 60 miles of town roads this year, with crews from Lewis Tree Service doing the bulk of the work now through June,” a utility spokesman said. “Along with trimming, 111 hazardous trees are scheduled to be removed.” Schedule
Some of the work began earlier this month in the area of Tokeneke Road, Old Farm and Searles roads, Cliff Avenue and Raymond Street, a utility spokesman said. Here’s the rest of the schedule (all of the work is weather permitting, and schedules could change):
Late May:
Area includes Boston Post Road, Hollow Tree Ridge Road, Rings End Road, Noroton Avenue and Nearwater Lane
Early June:
Boston Post Road, Old Kings Highway and Locust Hill Road
Eversource’s Tree Cutting Program
Here’s Eversource’s description of why the tree work is taking place and information on the utility’s tree program:
“As you know, Tropical Storm Isaias caused massive damage to the state, with thousands of trees being damaged or destroyed.
In 2021, Eversource will be investing about $72 million in tree trimming and hazardous tree removal to enhance reliability for customers throughout Connecticut. — an announcement from Eversource
Eversource also encourages customers to maintain trees on their own property that can interfere with electric lines or equipment. “As we saw last summer during some severe storms, trees are the number one cause of power outages and trimming trees away from electric lines and removing dead or hazard trees is critical — especially as fierce weather seems to impact our region more frequently,” said Eversource Vegetation Management Manager Alan Carey. New Englanders saw firsthand the massive devastation caused by Tropical Storm Isaias and the powerful microburst that struck the Branford area last summer — bringing down thousands of trees around the state. Those violent storms are a clear reminder of just how destructive trees can be to the electric system.
With more snow expected to fall before 1 p.m. and possible wind gusts of up to 38 mph in Darien, Winter Storm Gail continues to get herself settled in, closing school buildings, the town library and Town Hall. A total of 56 electricity customers were without power as of 8:35 a.m., Thursday, according to Eversource. Around the state, 411 Eversource customers were without power. Weather Forecast
The National Weather Service forecast for Darien, as of 7:56 a.m., says we’ll have “Snow, mainly before noon. High near 31.
Several thousand electricity customers across the state, including 10 in Darien, were still without power late Tuesday afternoon after Monday’s strong winds cut power to customers in every one of the 149 communities served by Eversource, the utility said. As of 4:37 p.m., Tuesday, there were 4, 293 customers still waiting to get their electricity service (0.34% of the 1,279,556 customers in the state), including 10 in Darien, according to the Eversource.com website. Eversource issued this statement early Tuesday afternoon:
While adhering to strict COVID-19 pandemic protocols, Eversource crews continue working around-the-clock shifts restoring power to customers impacted by Monday’s severe wind and rain storm. As of midday, line and tree crews have restored power to more than 93,000 customers since the storm began and continue working to bring the remaining 7,500 customers back on line. Town-by-town restoration estimates are now available at Eversource.com.
“Widespread power shortages are expected,” with wind gusts of up to 65 mph possible on Monday, the National Weather Service said as it issued a High Wind Warning until 6 p.m. Monday night and Eversource says it’s getting ready to make repairs. Update: 5:21 p.m. — Only 27 Darien customers (0.34%) were without power as of 5:07 p.m., according to Eversource. Statewide, 46,338 of the company’s 1.28 million customers were without power, or 3.62%. Update: 12:57 p.m. — as of 12:46 p.m., Eversource says, there were 36 Darien customers without power. As of 11 a.m., no outages were reported in Darien, two or fewer in New Canaan, 62 in Norwalk and 23 in Stamford.
Darien Public Schools will be closed today, Tuesday, Dec. 17, the district announced, and Darien Library announced it will have a delayed opening at 10 a.m., all due to the weather. This article was last updated at 6:23 a.m.
Here’s the district’s announcement on the public schools website:
Due to inclement weather, the Darien Public Schools will be closed today, Tuesday December 17, 2019. Stay warm and safe! When Darien schools close, kindergarten and preschool programs in town also close, and Darien Senior Center closes.
Darien Public Schools announced a two-hour delay Tuesday morning, the district announced. Here’s the announcement on the district’s website:
Darien Public Schools will have a 2 hour delay, Tuesday, December 3rd. Elementary Parent Conferences scheduled for this afternoon will be cancelled and moved to a later date. Drive Safe! The district has a description of why delays in opening school are made and advice for parents when that happens.
Darien schools will close early today, Monday, the school district announced on its website. For the same reason, Darien Library also announced it will close early. Darien Arts Center canceled classes, as well. The district’s announcement read:
The Darien Public Schools will be dismissing early today. All afternoon activities scheduled for today are cancelled and/or will be rescheduled for a later day.
Eversource reports 178 electricity customers are without power in Darien as of 10:20 a.m. That’s 2.2 percent of the utility’s 8,055 customers in town. Across the utility’s service area in the state, there are 3,807 customers without power (out of 1.27 million customers, or 0.3 percent). UPDATE, MONDAY, 10:11 a.m.:
Darien police announced: “As a result of the overnight storm that brought several inches of heavy, wet snow to the area, the following roads are closed due to downed trees and or power lines: near the intersection Deepwood Road and Laurel Lane, East Lane (partial), Driftway Lane, Pembroke Road, Peach Hill Road, Great Hill Road, Heights Road (partial). The intersection of Noroton Avenue and Middlesex Road is without power. Temporary stop signs have been deployed.
Metro-North is advising train riders to check for announcements about train service on Thursday, as the National Weather Service predicts snow, sleet and rain for the afternoon. “With the projected inclement weather predicted for our service territory, customers are advised to monitor mta.info, social media feeds or call our Customer Information Center at 511 (in Connecticut call 877-690-5114),” Metro-North said in an announcement at 10:25 a.m.
Darien Public Schools, as well as Stamford Public Schools, have cancelled all after-school and evening activities because of the expected inclement weather. See also: “After-School and Evening Activities Cancelled by Darien Public Schools” (Nov. 15)
Here’s the rest of the announcement:
We urge all our customers to take care when traveling. Stay clear of the platform edges, use handrails, and walk carefully when entering or exiting stations and boarding or leaving trains.
