WTNH News Channel 8 / News / 1999

	Power temporarily out for most of New London (New London-WTNH) _ Folks in New London are breathing easier at this hour after a very hot afternoon. Just before 3:00 pm more than 13,000 Northeast Utilities customers lost power. That's 94-percent of NU's customers in New London. The outage created some serious problems. News Channel 8's Peter Standring explains. I was sitting at my desk this afternoon typing a story on the computer when the power went out. I quickly found out I wasn't alone. Northeast Utilities officials said more than 13,000-thousand of their customers in New London were in the dark and in the heat. They say there was a 'cable failure' at the sub-station in New London essentially causing a 'short circuit'. That knocked-out service to about 10,000 people. But in order to inspect the damage and clean the equipment they had to disconnect thousands of other customers. So homes and businesses were without electricity, traffic lights were down, and police officers scrambled to get people through busy intersections. At the Huntington Towers apartment complex we found dozens of senior citizens sitting outside on the curb under the trees because their apartments had become unbearable. Mayra Mendez, Huntington Towers: "The power went out and they came down stairs, and through word of mouth they've been coming outside basically to keep away from the heat." Virginia Brown, Resident: "Oh please! it was like an oven, it really is! There's nothing!" The only thing that was keeping them comfortable was a cool breeze. Fortunately for them and everyone else in New London the power is back on, but it was a chaotic and hot for several hours. Power was expected to be fully restored by 7:30. Today's News Page. WTNH Home Page. ©1999 WTNH/WTNH-DT A LIN station.

Power temporarily out for most of New London
(New London-WTNH) _ Folks in New London are breathing easier at this hour after a very hot afternoon. Just before 3:00 pm more than 13,000 Northeast Utilities customers lost power. That's 94-percent of NU's customers in New London. The outage created some serious problems.
News Channel 8's Peter Standring explains.

I was sitting at my desk this afternoon typing a story on the computer when the power went out. I quickly found out I wasn't alone. Northeast Utilities officials said more than 13,000-thousand of their customers in New London were in the dark and in the heat.

They say there was a 'cable failure' at the sub-station in New London essentially causing a 'short circuit'. That knocked-out service to about 10,000 people. But in order to inspect the damage and clean the equipment they had to disconnect thousands of other customers. So homes and businesses were without electricity, traffic lights were down, and police officers scrambled to get people through busy intersections.

At the Huntington Towers apartment complex we found dozens of senior citizens sitting outside on the curb under the trees because their apartments had become unbearable.

Residents sit under tree Mayra Mendez, Huntington Towers: "The power went out and they came down stairs, and through word of mouth they've been coming outside basically to keep away from the heat."
Virginia Brown, Resident: "Oh please! it was like an oven, it really is! There's nothing!"

The only thing that was keeping them comfortable was a cool breeze. Fortunately for them and everyone else in New London the power is back on, but it was a chaotic and hot for several hours.

Power was expected to be fully restored by 7:30.

Today's News Page.

WTNH Home Page.