Saud Anwar

As 38 Percent Of His District Is Still Without Power, Sen. Anwar Meets with Governor Lamont, South Windsor Officials to Survey Response

State Senator Saud Anwar and Governor Ned Lamont greet with a hygienic elbow-tap

With 38 percent of his Senate District still without power as of Thursday afternoon due to damages from Tropical Storm Isaias, State Senator Saud Anwar (D-South Windsor) today met with Governor Ned Lamont with the rest of the South Windsor delegation including South Windsor Mayor Andrew Paterna, State Representative Tom Delnicki (R-South Windsor), Town Manager Michael Maniscalco and members of the South Windsor Town Council in South Windsor’s Emergency Operations Center. Sen. Anwar advocated for the state to do all it can in spurring recovery efforts, especially as nearly 20,000 residents of his district still struggle with extended power outages.

“More than 8,000 people in East Hartford don’t have power as of Thursday afternoon, and nearly 60 percent of East Windsor Eversource customers haven’t had power in two days,” Sen. Anwar said. “These aren’t numbers; these are people. People who are struggling with medical equipment, food security, high summer heat and frustrating humidity, to name just a few possible problems they face. What’s worse is many more are likely struggling to work from home with the requirements of the COVID-19 pandemic, and what’s worse than that is they don’t know when that power will return. I’m grateful that Governor Lamont joined us today to review the response in South Windsor, but as nearly 40 percent of my district is without power, and 40 percent of the state still is powerless, I hope he can quickly spur change across the state.”

Governor Lamont joined the South Windsor leaders to review the town’s response to the storm at the Emergency Operations Center near Town Hall, installed while Sen. Anwar was Mayor of the town. The officials reviewed details regarding local and statewide recovery efforts in the town, though Sen. Anwar was similarly focused on cleanup efforts in his district as a while.

At the peak of the storm’s damage, just under half of all Eversource customers in Connecticut were without power; on Thursday, that number remained around 40 percent. Officials have criticized the utility company’s response to Isaias, with many town leaders across the state citing a sluggish response and unpreparedness before the storm heavily contributing to current outages.

As of Thursday afternoon, 3,696, or 58.6 percent, of East Windsor Eversource customers were without power; South Windsor had 4,407 customers, or 35.97 percent, powerless; Ellington saw 2,723 customers or 35.4 percent experiencing outages; and East Hartford had 8,143 customers, or 35 percent, without power.

From left, Governor Lamont, State Representative Tom Delnicki, Senator Anwar and South Windsor Town Manager Michael Maniscalco discuss storm response in South Windsor’s Emergency Operations Center.