Homes Damaged, Thousands Without Power In Stratford After Isaias

STRATFORD, CT — Tropical Storm Isaias downed trees and left thousands without power Tuesday in Stratford.

Fire Chief Brian Lampart estimated gusts of up to 60 mph blew through town, causing trees to fall on houses and damaging cars, although there were no reported injuries, significant flooding or major fires as a result of the storm.

“We were busy on both the north and south end of town,” Lampart said. “… There were some homes that were affected.”

As of about 10:30 p.m., firefighters had received 121 calls Tuesday, according to a Facebook post from Stratford Professional Firefighters IAFF 998. The Stratford union warned residents to assume wires were live and included a video of a downed power line ablaze on Woodend Road.

Thousands of United Illuminating Co. customers in Stratford — at one point more than 12,000 — went without power for much of the day. As of 3:30 a.m. Wednesday, 44 percent of Stratford customers — or 10,490 customers — were experiencing an outage, according to the company’s outage map. Lampart expected power would remain out for many affected homes through the night and Mayor Laura Hoydick said in a tweet 8 p.m. Tuesday that service restoration could take up to 12 hours.

"UI crews will continue to work in concert with our Public Safety Departments and Public Works Department to address hazards caused by the storm," Hoydick said.

Stratford Town Hall offices closed mid-afternoon due to the weather, according to a tweet from Hoydick. The "Softball Pros vs. Stratford Firefighter Joes" charity game scheduled for Tuesday was moved to 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at DeLuca Field, according to a Facebook post from IAFF 998.

For more information about specific outages, visit bit.ly/39SDtig. For non-emergencies, call 203-385-4100. To report outages to UI, call 800-722-5584 or visit UINET.com.