Storm Knocks Out Power For Hundreds Of Darienites

A storm system that rolled through the area late Tuesday afternoon left nearly a fifth of Darien residents without electricity, according to Connecticut Light and Power, but service appeared to have been largely or completely restored by 8:00 p.m.

As of 7:35 p.m., the company's outage map showed 1,448 customers—or about 19%—without power in Darien. Within half an hour that number had returned to zero.

CL&P spokesman Frank Poirot said the exact cause of the outages was not clear, but that the scope suggested one or two major circuits had been affected, possibly by branches hitting power lines in the wind.

Numerous reports placed outages in the Noroton Heights-West Ave. corridor and in the vicinity of Mansfield Ave. near Buttonwood Lane, where downed power lines briefly forced authorities to close the road.

West Ave. resident John Boulton described the failure on his street as "pretty unusual," adding, "I can count on one hand how often it's happened in 17 years of living here."

Sgt. Jeremiah Marron of the Darien Police Department said the blackouts had set off alarms across town, and that numerous intersections were without electricity in the immediate aftermath of the storm. Temporary stop signs were at use at several of them, including Noroton Ave. & West Ave.

The Noroton Heights Walgreens Pharmacy and Stop and Shop were both without power or back-up generators as of 7:30 p.m. Cash purchases only were allowed at either store.

Marron added that there were reports of minor flooding, but none that rose to the level of March's powerful storms.

The rain did, however, force the suspension of the Darien High School baseball team's CIAC Class L tournament opener against Fairfield Ludlowe on Tuesday. The game is set to resume Wednesday at 4 p.m.