After scathing public criticism and a government inquiry into its performance following 2011's Tropical Storm Irene and a freak October snowstorm, CL&P vowed that it would be prepared for the next widespread outage.
That happened all too soon with Hurricane Sandy when more than 600,000 customers lost power as the massive storm swept through the Northeast last Monday and Tuesday.
Following the storm, CL&P began a two day assessment period and didn't give estimates of when power might be restored until Thursday. William Quinlan, a company vice president and spokesman, then said that 98% of affected customers would be restored by "Monday or Tuesday."
As of Monday morning, 99 percent of CL&P customers had power, though 23,494 were still in the dark.
Some elected officials — including Stonington First Selectman Ed Haberek Jr. — criticized CL&P's response, saying that not enough linemen were working on the hardest-hit areas. Others, including West Hartford Mayor Scott Slifka, a vocal critic of last year's response, were not 100 percent happy with the response but said communication had improved.
Since CL&P beat its self-imposed deadline of 98 percent restoration before Tuesday, should the utility be praised for its efforts, or do problems remain that need to be fixed in advance of the next big storm?
Take our poll and tell us in the comments.
