UI Says It Will Cut Outages in Half by End of Day

United Illuminating believes it can restore electricity to 35,000-40,000 customers by the end of today, cutting the amount of current outages approximately in half.      

As of 10:30 a.m., 73,000—22 percent of its customers—were without electricity due to widespread damage from Hurricane Sandy. During the peak of the hurricane’s damage, 200,000 UI customers in the Bridgeport and New Haven areas were without electricity.

James Torgeson, CEO of United Illuminating Holdings, said the company exceeded its goal of restoring electricity to 20,000-25,000 customers on Thursday when the lights were turned on for 27,000 customers.

The projection of restoring power to 95 percent of customers by 11:59 p.m. on Monday is still the goal.

“We still believe that will be the case,” Torgeson said at a 10 a.m. press conference at UI’s headquarters in Orange. “Hopefully we’ll do better than that.”

Torgeson said that the company’s employees worked until midnight on Thursday and started at 6 a.m. on Friday. “We’re working as hard as we can.”

UI issued these safety reminders in a press release:

• Assume downed, damaged or dangling power lines are live and dangerous.
• Avoid anything in which these power lines might be in contact, such as trees or fences.
• Keep children and pets indoors and away from danger.
• Be mindful of the smell of natural gas.