Power outages, fallen trees and icy roads are some of the effects of the this weekend’s winter storm, which is expected to bring city wind chill values between -5 and -10 degrees Fahrenheit, temperature lows of 5 degrees Fahrenheit and wind gusts as high as 46 mph, according to the National Weather Service.
“This could be a scary part right now as we think about the freezing, thinking about the wind,” said Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont at a Winter Storm news briefing on Sunday morning . “We making sure we are do everything we can to keep power going, and doing everything we can to make sure those major roads don’t freeze over because that could be dangerous.”
According to Lamont, there are 700 plows working “around the clock” to clear the roads of snow on Sunday before temperatures lower to avoid the creation of black ice.
He addressed state power outages, and said that about 1 percent of the state experienced loss of power. According to Lamont, New Haven was particularly hard hit, with over 5,000 people without electricity at the time of the press briefing.
At approximately 7 p.m. on Sunday, The United Illuminating Company — an Connecticut-based electronic distribution company that serves over 58,000 New Haven customers — reported that 2,764 of its customers were currently experiencing outages.
The University also experienced power outages on Sunday morning in many residential colleges, including Ezra Stiles, Branford and Saybrook, as well as other college buildings.
A Sunday evening Yale Alert sent to the community encouraged students to be prepared with a “personal go-bag” packed with any medications, personal items and clothes in the “unlikely event” that Yale may need to relocate students due to prolonged power outages.
The Alert encouraged students to keep their electronic devices as well as a flashlight close by and charged. It also asked students to turn on their cell phone volumes, in case another Yale Alert was sent.
By at least 5:42 p.m. on Sunday, power had been restored to all of the residential colleges, according to the Alert. However, the Alert made it clear that weather was expected to worsen, and further outages were possible.
In an email sent to Stiles students from the Stiles Head of College Office, Stiles administrators warned students of fallen tree limbs due to the ice and heavy snow. They warned students to be careful when walking on campus on Sunday. “Or, if possible, please avoid walking on campus for the time being,” the administrators added. They also asked students with pressing facilities issues in the aftermath of the power outage to email the facilities superintendent.
The state held a unified command meeting at the state Emergency Operations Center on Sunday morning, according to a tweet from Lamont.
At 3:10 p.m. on Saturday, a Yale Alert announced that the City of New Haven issued a parking ban — which prohibits either parking on both sides of the street or on odd-sides of the street — in several zones of the city. The email announced that the ban would go into effect from midnight on Sunday until further notice due to “expected snow, heavy icing, and extremely cold temperatures.”
However, the scheduled parking ban was cancelled due to “a favorable change in the weather, ” announced a Yale Alert at 8:45 p.m. on the same day, approximately three hours before the ban was going to be actualized.
New Haven saw snow, sleet and freezing rain on Sunday night.
Sammy Westfall | sammy.westfall@yale.edu
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