Portland Still Offering Bit of Comfort to Those Without Power

One service Portland is providing to residents is hot showers at the high school. The showers will be open again from 2 p.m. until 5 p.m. on Monday. After nearly a week with cold sponge baths, a hot shower came as a highly desired treat if not a necessity.

But the service was a bit hard to find. There are no signs for the service at the entrance to the high school off of High Street or on the doors. The set of doors on the left side of the main entrance were unlocked. Once inside, a table could be seen at the end of a hall for the shower sign up.   

Two volunteers, Sandy and Jane, members of the Connecticut Emergency Response Team were welcoming residents.  They said 23 people came on Thursday, not counting children; 16 on Friday, and seven half way through Saturday.  People who came wrote down their names and streets on a sheet.  But they also said Portland is a town where people get help from friends and relatives, so it may explain the low numbers.

"It's close knit," one said of the community.  

One volunteer pointed to nearby outlets and said people could power their cell phones while showering.  

A woman who emerged from the shower area with her daughter, seemed refreshed and smiling, but expressed frustration and some anger with power still being out.  She would only give her name as Donna and said she and her husband heard about problems coordinating repairs. Those problems she argued, involved "faulty coordination" within and between responding companies.

"They could have planned better" and had the necessary parts in place, she said.  

Another Portland woman who used the shower said she lived nearby on William Street, in one of only three houses that still didn't have power.

"Everyone else nearby has it" she said.

One of the CERT women at the table suggested she call CL&P again to make sure she was still on the list. They suggested there could be confusion once a road was "cleared," but actually wasn't.

The William Street resident said she called CL&P several days ago and was surprised to "get a real person" on the phone. But now she was upset and worried she was lost in the shuffle. 

Most of the families still without power in Portland live in areas off of  Middle Haddam Road such as Breezy Corners Road, Penfield Hill Road, Maple Road and Stephen Tom Road. Throughout the area, branches recently sawed and cleared could be seen on both sides of the roads. 

Breezy Corners was still partially blocked Saturday by a tree along with downed wires. 

On Maple Road there was a crew with four trucks from the Dillard Smith company. As some crew members stepped back to look at their last job, they chatted with a grateful homeowner. He said it was good to have the lights back on after so many days and finally get things back to normal. 

The Smith crew said they were from Tennessee and had been working in the Portland area for several days. They said they had a system of getting a list of assignments from CL&P and would just go down the list, one address at a time.

A lot of times they said it was just a matter of hooking up the wires after clearing a branch. Sometimes, they have to take down damaged parts and replace them. 

They are supposed to find supplies they need ready by the side of the road. Sometimes there are snags when they don't find something.  They have to call, then go to the next assignment and come back later in the day. They said there were a couple of problems with copper wire that wasn't ready. A CL&P liaison who stopped by in his pick-up agreed with the men that there were problems with wire. 

The crew from Tennessee didn't know how long they'd be working in Connecticut, but felt it would be a few more days.

On Summer and Main Street, things were returning to normal after power was restored Friday afternoon. A number of businesses were open again and local residents on most of Summer and several connecting streets were restocking refrigerators and using their own hot water. 

A second service Portland is still providing is fresh water for locals to fill up containers. A garden hose is set up behind the firehouse at Fire Company No. 2 at Main Street and Bell Court. The hose has a toggle switch that's easy to use, and the end of the hose is held off the ground by an orange cone that serves as an improvised holder. It also makes it easy to spot when you enter the parking lot behind the station.

By Sunday night, those without power numbered about 30 in Portland, according the CL&P web site.

Anyone needing to contact CL&P can reach them at 1-800-286-2000.