Storm Batters Southington, 2,900 Without Power

Severe thunderstorms have created havoc in Southington, with officials reporting power outages, wires down and fallen trees throughout town.

The National Weather Service has called off most storm watches, but town officials are still busy responding to dozens of calls that came in during the severe weather.

"Right now, we are trying to sort things out. There are numerous roads closed," said Sgt. Robert Wilson.

The following roads have been remain closed at this time:

• Shuttle Meadow Avenue at Dunham Place
• Flanders Road at Pattonwood Drive
• Brookwood and Tanglewood Drive
• Meriden Avenue at Pondview Drive
• Andrews Street in the vacinity of 415 Andrews St.
• Woodruff Street near the 1,100's block

Police said roads are now slowly reopening, but some remain closed through much of the evening.

Connecticut Light and Power is reporting that more than 131,000 people across the state are without power at this time, including 2,877 customers in Southington.

All the traffic lights along Queen Street, one of the town's busiest roads, are out and motorists are asked to use extreme caution, officials said.

CL&P has opened its Emergency Operations Center in Berlin, manned with over 100 contractor line and tree crews to restore power to customers, according to a press release.

"We have been carefully watching the weather and put plans in place so we have crews and support staff ready to respond once the storm moves through," Al Roy, CL&P's manager of emergency management, said in the press release. "As always, we will be working with town and state officials to coordinate our efforts."

The Natonal Weather Service has issued a thunderstorm watch in northern Connecticut, effective until 10 p.m., and a flood advisory in the Greater Hartford area that will last until 7:45 p.m.

CL&P offers the following tips in this severe weather:

• If you lose power, you can contact CL&P at (800) 286-2000, or (860) 947-2000 in the Hartford/Meriden area.
• "Stay at least 10 feet away from all wires," and "assume any downed, hanging or burning power lines are live and dangerous." Call 9-1-1 immediately if you spot one. 
• Stay in your vehicle if a power line falls on it. Wait for emergency responders to arrive after calling 911, and do not touch the outside of your vehicle.
• If you have a generator in your home, do not operate it unless a licensed electrician has properly installed it.  Otherwise, it may feed "electricity back into power lines and pose a deadly situation for our workers," according to the press release. Also, "operate generators outdoors to avoid carbon monoxide hazards."

How else can you find out about power outages in your area?

• Follow CL&P on Twitter at twitter.com/CTlightandpower for updates. Just before 7 p.m., a tweet from CL&P said, "Storms caused heavy & widespread damage across CL&P's system. Crews are mobilized but restoration may take several days to complete."

Aside from power outages, police and fire officials also found themselves busy with multiple incidents. Along Dunham Place near Shuttle Meadow Road, a woman was trapped as trees fell along both sides of her car. A tree also fell onto a truck in the area of Meriden Avenue.

No serious injuries were reported in either incident.

Firefighters have also extinguished a utility pole fire at Prospect Street and a tree has fallen on a mobile home in the Jensen Trailer Park. The roof of the mobile home was severely damaged, but none of the residents were injured, police said.

Town across the state are suffering from power outages, with all of North Haven now reportedly without power. In Bristol, there are now 12,000 customers who have lost service.

With the massive number of outages, CL&P officials said workers will be assigned to make repairs around the clock, but it could take days in parts of the state before power is finally restored.

Officials are asking residents to remain off town roads as possible to allow police and fire officials to continue to respond.