About 70,000 Without Power in Conn. Ahead of Irene

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — About 70,000 customers are without power in Connecticut as Hurricane Irene churns up the East Coast.

Connecticut Light & Power Co. reported nearly 60,000 power outages early Sunday. The United Illuminating Co. was reporting about 10,000 outages.

Spokesmen for the utilities said Saturday that hundreds more crews from as far away as Alabama, Michigan and Quebec are ready to help out in Connecticut.

CL&P and UI officials say crews won’t begin restoring power until conditions are safe. Hurricane-force winds are expected to hit the state later Sunday morning.

CL&P serves 1.2 million customers in Connecticut. UI serves 324,000 electricity customers in the New Haven and Bridgeport areas along the shore. State officials say outages from the storm could last several days in some places.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.

Related posts:

1. Obama Declares Emergency for Conn. Ahead of Irene
2. Irene Prompts Mandatory Evacuations in Conn.
3. State-by-State Look at Dangers in New England, Prep for Irene
4. Conn. Gov. Considers Putting Full Ban On Non-Emergency Vehicles
5. Irene Blows Apart New England Travel Plans

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Posted by jcashman on Aug 28 2011. Filed under Top Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry