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Governor Dannel Malloy says residents could well be without power for a week or more following the arrival of Tropical Storm Irene. WNPR's Jeff Cohen reports.
Malloy says that hundreds of thousands of residents were still without power.
"Well let's put it in historic perspective. We have never had as many people out of power as we have had as a result of this storm."
Also powerless are many of the state's cell phone towers.
"There are about 300 cell sites that are currently fading as a result of their running out of their backup power."
The governor asked residents to keep use of cell phones to a minimum. He also asked them to minimize the use of their cars, as gas stations are getting limited deliveries for the time being. When it comes to supermarkets, the governor said that about 15 to 20 percent of them are without power.
Earlier in the day, Malloy took a flight over much of the state to try and assess the storm's damage.
"...Was most impressed with the damage in the Simsbury and Farmington River area, it is quite extensive, a large number of buildings and farms under water. Certainly impressed with the power of the storm along the shorefront."
Speaking of the destruction near Long Island Sound, Malloy said this:
"I met a woman yesterday, she stayed in her building as her front porch was ripped away...If we're going to go through this again we've got to convince people to give up their buildings in the future."
Meanwhile, Irene will continue to have an impact on the state. Here's David Vallee, with the National Weather Service. He says the Connecticut River hasn't yet reached its highpoint.
"From my vantage point, while the flash flood threat, which has been equally as devastating, has for the most part ended, we still have some of the moderate sized and larger rivers that still will take all of today to crest and in the case of Connecticut we're not likely to see the river crest and see their highest river elevation until midweek."
The weather service says the river could crest in Middletown at about 15 feet.
For WNPR, I'm Jeff Cohen.
