Wilton Publishes Hurricane Isaias Update For August 9

Press release from the Town of Wilton:

August 9, 2020

"12:30 p.m.-This morning we didn’t receive the same level of resources from Eversource as we received yesterday. The Governor’s Office has been actively working on our behalf to increase resources and facilitate improved operational communication and communication with residents. As a result, we have begun to see new crews arriving. Thank you to Johnathan Harris from the Governor’s Office, Will Haskell, Gail Lavielle and Tom O’Dea. All hands are on deck!

Today’s Status:

• Overnight the make safe, blocked road crews made good progress with only 5 roads remaining: Dumplin, Fairview, Newtown Tpke, Trail’s End and Wakefield. Efforts have begun on blocked shared driveways.
• Critical system backbone outages continue. Wilton customers are on several different circuits. Some of those circuits originate outside of Wilton. For example, the south corner of Wilton is on a Norwalk-based circuit, Chestnut Hill north or RT 33 is on a Weston-based circuit. All of North Wilton is on a Ridgefield or Redding-based circuit.
• Weston-based backbone appears to have suffered the worst damage. As an example, one the 100+ foot towers fell, requiring delivery and installation of a new tower and restringing of wires. 70% Weston customers are without power.
• I am still waiting for an updated status report for each circuit. I will share when it arrives. It is helpful information as to your outage, especially if you are dependent on Weston.
• Town wide, approximately 800 residents have had their power restored since my last update. 3,597 or 48% remain without power.
• Power has been restored to Cider Mill and Middlebrook meaning no change to Tuesday’s primary locations and WiFi is now available outside the buildings. Password is Warrior1.
• Still no answer from Eversource about individual ETR. My personal expectation is that we will never see them.

Reminders/Other Updates:

Downed Wires:

• Please stay away from downed wires.
• If you must pass over a wire, do so in a vehicle. Do not walk over a wire.
• Wires can be suddenly energized. When that occurs, they move.

Cable Service: Altice (Optimum) and Frontier both have crews working in town.

Water: Potable water distribution capabilities at Fire Headquarters have increased. Distribution of is now from the non-Town Hall side of the building. Water is available 24/7.

WiFi/Internet: Evening sign-up access to Comstock, see below. Power was restored to Comstock, so air conditioning returned. Please see details below. Outdoor WiFi access is available at the back of Town Hall, at WHS and at Comstock. WiFi at Miller Driscoll is less reliable. No WiFi at Middlebrook and Cider Mill as there isn’t power. The password for all buildings is Warrior1.

Other Assistance: The Wilton Social Services Department is currently providing a range of assistance to residents during the hurricane emergency. If you also need assistance or know of someone who needs assistance, please contact Sarah Heath at sarah.heath@wiltonct.org.

Another update will be provided this evening. If you wish to contact me please email at lynne.vanderslice@wiltonct.org. Thank you for your patience."

Lynne Vanderslice

First Selectwoman

Comstock WiFi Access and Charging Stations:

• Weeknights open from 4:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
• Saturday and Sunday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
• Sign-up via e-Trak or by calling (weekdays) or visiting Comstock if you can’t access e-Trak.
• Walk-ins are allowed, if space is available.
• You must wear a mask and complete a contact form.
• Bring your devise and extension cords.
• Socially distant tables and chairs provided.
• Staff will be onsite.
• No bathrooms.

Message from Altice:

In Connecticut (as of 8 am 8/8), 23% of our customers are currently offline, with the vast majority of the service-related issues being caused by loss of commercial power. To the extent that there are impacts on our plant due to the storm, we need to ensure the situations are safe (no live electrical wires) prior to proceeding with repairs.

Our central network has back up power and generators to ensure that we can provide service as soon as commercial power is restored to individual customer homes and our more local network. In instances where power is restored but service is still impacted, it is likely that our network was damaged such as at the individual home level or the node/neighborhood level. We are working as fast as we can to identify root causes of any service outages and restore services if an outage not related to loss of commercial power.

We encourage our customers to contact us via social media (Twitter and Facebook) to advise of any individual service issues as we are actively monitoring those channels. In addition, to alleviate long hold times to reach care agents via phone, customers can use the message function on Optimum.net. to chat with a live agent and identify service issues.

Given the extent of the storm’s impact on service across the region, we have opened the Optimum WiFi network to customers and non-customers during this emergency situation and nearly 93% of our WiFi hotspots are online.

Here is the hotspot link: https://www.optimum.com/outage

This press release was produced by the Town of Wilton.The views expressed here are the author’s own.