BERLIN, Conn., - July 1, 2012 - Connecticut Light and Power (CL&P) workers will be on the road early Monday morning, heading for Maryland where hundreds of thousands of customers remain without power in the wake of a severe weather system that passed through the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic regions on Friday.
Twelve CL&P line workers, a supervisor, mechanic and three support staff will join fellow Northeast Utilities crews from Boston, western Massachusetts and New Hampshire in assisting customers of First Energy Co. In total, more than three million customers in the region, including 400,000 customers of First Energy Co., were affected by the storm.
More than 40 Northeast Utilities workers will leave early Monday morning and will report to First Energy’s Williamsport, Maryland offices later in the day to receive their assignments. Though the date of their return will be dictated by the progress of the cleanup, crews are prepared to work day-and-night helping restore power until at least into the coming weekend.
CL&P and its workers are no strangers to helping those in need. In recent years they have assisted utilities and customers as far away as Florida and Mississippi. From time-to-time, CL&P makes similar requests of utilities from across the country when the need arises, such as during the two historic storms that hit Connecticut last year, in August and October.
When deciding on the correct number of workers to send in response to First Energy’s current request, CL&P was careful to keep sufficient crews locally to respond to any damage or outages that could be caused by the summer heat or potential thunderstorms.