Early snow takes out power

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The first snow of the season came early this year. - FILE PHOTO

An early taste of winter took out power in most homes and businesses in Naugatuck, Prospect and Beacon Falls Saturday. As skies cleared Sunday morning, trees still blocked roads and power lines were down.

As of 4:30 p.m. Sunday, 95 percent of Connecticut Light and Power customers were without power in Naugatuck and Prospect and 99 percent in Beacon Falls, according to CL&P’s website.

School will be closed in Naugatuck and Region 16 Monday.

Naugatuck opened up Andrew Avenue Elementary School as a warming station Sunday morning, according to Mayor Robert Mezzo’s blog (www.bobmezzo.com). It will remain open until 8 p.m. Sunday night. Snacks and beverages are available at the school, and residents can fill water bottles for drinking in the school’s cafeteria. Water for other uses is available at the Fire Department at the Old Firehouse Road entrance, according to Mezzo’s blog. Residents may also charge cell phones or laptops at the school or at the Fire and Police Departments.

Andrew Avenue will not be open as an overnight shelter. However, residents without heat may shelter at the Waterbury Arts Magnet School at 16 South Elm Street in Waterbury, Mezzo wrote on his blog.

Katie Blint, a spokesperson for CL&P, said it would take up to a week and possibly longer to restore power for some customers.

“What we’re asking is for our customers to expect the worst case scenario at this point,”Blint said.

As of Sunday morning, almost 770,000 CL&P customers were without power, surpassing the peak number of outages caused by Tropical Storm Irene two months ago, according to the release.

CL&P has pledged to work around-the-clock to restore power as soon as possible.

To report outages or check the status of an outage, visit cl-p.com or call 800-286-2000.