Somers Making do After Storm

According to CL&P, 100 percent of Somers residents are still without power, but everyone is making do.

“I think we’re doing well,” Somers First Selectwoman Lisa Pellegrini said.

On Monday afternoon, volunteers – mostly town employees – put together sandwiches at the Emergency Operations Center at the for the personnel who are working around town.

Rep. Penny Bacchiochi and Congressman Joe Courtney also stopped by the to see how things are going.

Courtney then made a trip over to the at , which Pellegrini said is “running seamlessly.”

Courtney stopped and visited with some of the people using the shelter and even brought some candy for the children who were there – since it is Halloween, after all.

A long row of cell phones was plugged into the wall and one resident said, “We’re all desperate for communication.”

Pellegrini said that there have been an average of 20 people per night at the shelter, but that she expects that number to rise. For lunch on Monday, approximately 75 people were served, which is up quite a bit from Sunday.

Showers are also still available at the shelter – please bring your own toiletries. These showers will still be available once school resumes, but the timeframe will be shortened from 4:30 p.m. until 7:30 p.m. so as not to interfere with the school day.

To make the shelter experience more pleasurable, movies are going to be shown on the big screen in the auditorium.

In a special accommodation, residents of a group home in town were given their own private room at the shelter so that they can all be together and comfortable and can keep their anxiety to a minimum.

After going to the shelter, Courtney was taken on a tour of some of areas in town damaged by the storm. Pellegrini said that Courtney told her he had “no idea of the destruction in town” until he saw it up close.

Pellegrini acknowledged that it isn’t easy – and that it’s not going to be – but that the town is trying to make it as easy as possible for the residents.

“What I’m trying to do is look at it from a residents’ point of view,” she said.

Water is still available at the firehouse and the shelter and showers will remain open.

The transfer station will also be open every day to accommodate residents who want to bring their debris to the station. This service will be free to Somers residents and Pellegrini said that it will be monitored on a week-to-week basis.

While some towns are banning Halloween, Somers is not. However, Pellegrini is asking everyone to use their own discretion and common sense.

Besides the ice and snow, there is debris, wires are down, there’s no power, and people have started cleaning up, possibly leading to sight line issues. Pellegrini feels it is unsafe, but she is not enacting a town-wide ban. 

Pellegrini has called an emergency town meeting for Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. in the Somers High School auditorium to address the short-term and long-range plans associated with the cleanup and aftermath of Winter Storm Alfred.