?Updated: REDDING, Conn. -- Cleanup work was underway Wednesday after a massive storm blew through Redding and Ridgefield on Tuesday, toppling trees and shutting down power to over half of the two towns.
“It’s bad around this town,” Jerry Martin, a tree worker waiting for an assignment for Eversource, said outside Redding Elementary School. “It’s a lot of damage.”
Martin said there were downed wires and some were burning in the road late Tuesday night.
He also said there are a lot of damaged trees just waiting to come down in Redding.
By noon Wednesday, Eversource had restored power to many customers. The remaining outages were:
- Danbury: 12 customers
- Redding: 953 or 25 percent of town
- Ridgefield: 1,138 or 11 percent of town
“We’re cleaning up the mess,” Redding Fire Chief Ron Van Oostendorp said as he monitored conditions at the Lonetown Road and Putnam Park Road intersection, where Redding Fire and Police officials were directing traffic around a downed wire. “Conditions are improving, but it is a very slow process.”
In Redding, the main post office had no power.
“The mail came in a little late, but we’re still running,” said Alisha Durgin, who works at the Redding Post Office. As of 10 a.m., she was unable to sell stamps or run reports because the office has no power. But those with P.O. boxes can still retrieve their mail.
The town selectmen were in a meeting and unavailable for comment. The Redding Police Department was not able to comment -- an officer was on the phone with Eversource checking on outages and other problems in town.
The state Department of Transportation reported that Route 58 was still closed in the vicinity of Putnam Park Road and Putnam State Park due to a fallen tree caught in wires.
Cross Highway is closed as well as a section of the Black Rock Turnpike.
Tree and power crews from Eversource were spotted at several locations in town as the work continued to restore power.
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