Most of Goshen was without power in wake of Winter Storm Brenda

GOSHEN, CT (WFSB) – As Eversource crews continue to work across the state, some homes are still in the dark while others are getting the lights back on.

Along Route 63 in Goshen there are Eversource crews wrapping up services.

One former resident, Don Pardon, said he went more than 12 hours without power.

Don lives in Louisiana but is visiting his sister in Goshen in the house they were raised in.

His childhood home saw the brunt of winter storm Brenda and was one of many locations that was in the dark Tuesday into Wednesday.

“They gave us a couple of estimates, I think the first estimate was about 8 in the evening, then it got pushed back to 9:30 then pushed back again to 12, then we were asleep. So it came back at about 4:30,” Don said.

Strong winds in the northwest today brought several trees down and outage numbers up.

Those winds left Norval Lunan in the dark for quite some time.

The damage also extended outside his home where several tree limbs and other debris covered his yard.

“Kind of scary hearing all the limbs coming down and the trees cracking,” Norval said.

With several inches of snow on the ground, he will have to wait a bit to clean it up.

“I’m figuring next week hopefully, we got some snow melt. I do it myself. It’ll probably take me a good 2-3 days to clean it up,” said Norval. “Born and raised here so it’s nothing new.”

At one point, 96 percent of Eversource customers in Goshen were without power on Wednesday morning following Winter Storm Brenda.

Heavy wet snow and gusty winds were to blame.

As of 6 a.m., however, crews made some headway and the number dropped 1,680 customers, 86 percent. Soon after that, most of the town was back on.

Residents in town said when a storm hits, they know outages are more than likely.

“We kind of are used to this, whether its 12 inches, 14 inches or 16, after a while it doesn’t make a lot of difference,” said Mark Harris of Goshen.

It wasn’t just power outages. Phone lines also came down.

“It started off as a very moist snow that actually froze,” Harris said. “I know we have trees down. I have a couple in my yard.”

Harris wasn’t alone. Thousands of customers in Goshen woke up to darkness.

“It went out yesterday at 1 p.m.,” said Mike Fitzgerald of Goshen. “[There was a] lot of snow and [we] waited for it to come on for awhile, and then ended up hooking up a generator.”

Some businesses fought to keep doors open as the storm continued into Tuesday night.

Goshen Pizza knew customers without power would rely on some food from it to ride out the storm. Propane and a generator were what owner Resmi Rizvani said he relied on to stay open.

Eyewitness News spoke to some people who shoveled in Goshen Tuesday night. They too said they had to rely on a generator.

Eversource said it brought in crews from across the country.

Those crews worked around the clock to get power back up and running.

Eversource customers Channel 3 spoke with said their power was lost in the late afternoon.

“My power’s been out since 2:30 p.m. [Tuesday],” said Steve Guletsky of Goshen. “So, I [needed] more gasoline for my generator.”

Harris said he remembered a few big storms.

“My first year in Goshen was ‘94 or ‘95,” he said. “We had 54 inches of snow that year. That’s the biggest I’ve seen.”

Wednesday, a day after the storm, Harris warned that the roads in town could still be slick.

“If they don’t have to be out there, they should stay home,” he said. “Some of the roads are actually impassable still.”

Read Channel 3′s complete forecast in its technical discussion here.

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