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Connecticut struggles with electricity repairs after Irene

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As the Northeast struggles to clean up after Irene, tiny Connecticut finds itself winning the dubious honor of having the most difficult time restoring electrical power. Blame, in part, the trees.

According to federal statistics, almost 173,000 people in the Nutmeg State remained without electricity as of Friday morning, down from the peak of about 702,000. That represents 11% of the state’s customers without electricity, the worst percentage and the highest number of any of the dozen states hit by Irene.

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The state’s major utility, Connecticut Light and Power, has increased the number of its repair crews to 1,600 from about 200 to meet the demand. It is hoping to have power restored to at least 92% of its service area Friday and full restoration by midweek, spokesman Al Lara said in a telephone interview.

Lara said the utility faced special problems because it was hit last by the storm moving up the coast and because it has a more complicated geography.

“We’re a little different than a lot of states,” Lara said. ‘We have the most number of trees, 184 trees per square mile. In addition to that, we are densely populated.”

The large number of trees makes for an abundance of easy targets in a severe storm such as Irene.

Further, hundreds of roads remain closed so access to fallen power lines has been harder, he said.

Irene “hit at a most inopportune time,” Lara said. “The trees were at full canopy. It was the height of summer and there was an astronomical high tide and storm surge that pushed tons of water” onto ground that was already saturated.

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The utility has posted a schedule of when it hopes to make repairs in each town.

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