Newsletter

August 20, 2021

Tropical Storm Henri is fast-approaching us and is expected to touch down in our state on Sunday and could become the first hurricane recorded in New England since 1991 and Eversource, the state’s largest electrical supplier, has changed its storm projection from a level four event to a level three, meaning up to 49 percent of customers could be without power for up to 10 days.

In this e-update I am providing the latest communication I have received from Eversource regarding Henri as well some valuable hurricane preparedness tips. The Connecticut State Department of Education is hosting a webinar for parents and families focused on returning to school safely during COVID-19. I'm launching a Youth Cabinet next month and am including some more information on it below including the link to sign up.

Please stay safe this weekend!


PREPARING FOR HURRICANE HENRI

Eversource

I wanted to share pertinent pieces of an email I received today from Eversource including an overview of where things stand at the moment as well as the number of crews expected to be working:

Eversource Monitoring and Preparing for Tropical Storm Henri
Operational Status: WARNING

Overview

  • We continue to carefully monitor Tropical Storm Henri’s approach to New England Sunday morning into Monday.
  • Forecasters have made further westward adjustments to the storm track increasing the risk of hurricane landfall over southern New England, including southeastern CT, with a possible impact to central and western CT depending on the ultimate track.
  • The updated forecast indicates Henri will make landfall near the Rhode Island/Massachusetts border Sunday afternoon and will slow down significantly as it approaches the coast. Landfall could occur a few hours before or after the time indicated. The slowing of the storm near the coast could result in prolonged strong winds and heavy rains.
  • Once Henri enters warmer waters, the storm could gain hurricane strength bringing with it increased risks of inland flooding due to heavy rains.
  • Hazard winds are expected to develop Sunday morning around 6:00 a.m. through Monday afternoon around 3:00 p.m. Peak wind gusts could be up to 65 mph in southeast Connecticut and 40-55 mph in other portions of the state.
  • Local media outlets across the service territory are mentioning the storm in their coverage and are also citing the low forecast confidence at this time.
  • Eversource currently expects to activate our ERP at an Event Level 3 Sunday morning, indicating 8,000-25,000 trouble spots on our system and a range of 290-900 line crews available at the onset of the storm. This is an event level upgrade since our last briefing.
  • Impact by a Category 1 Hurricane, or a strong tropical storm, will cause damage that would take a significant amount of time to restore.
RESOURCE ACQUISITION PREPARATION FOR HENRI
  • Eversource’s CT, MA and NH Incident Management Teams (IMTs) and Emergency Coordination Team (ECT) continue to meet daily to coordinate preparation activities.
  • Eversource has secured more than 720 line crews that will be in Connecticut ahead of the storm’s arrival on Sunday. This storm’s track into New England from the ocean may allow us to obtain mutual aid crews from the mid-Atlantic states.

Resources

HURRICANE PREPAREDNESS TIPS

Please see the graphic below for tips on how to prepare for a hurricane tips. You can sign up to receive power outage alerts here. For electrical hazards you should be aware of at home or on the road please click here. CT Alerts is a state-of-the-art emergency notification system that alerts residents anywhere in the state about life-threatening emergency conditions. You can sign up for CT alerts here.

Henri

CONNECTICUT STATE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION WEBINAR MONDAY

The Connecticut State Department of Education (CSDE) is offering a Virtual House Call/Webinar for parents and families focused on returning to school safely during COVID-19. The event will be held on Monday, August 23rd from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.

If you'd like to learn more, you can attend the webinar by registering. Please click on the image below:

Back to school

JOIN ME ON FACEBOOK MONDAY FOR "GETTING BACK TO SCHOOL SAFELY DURING A CHANGING PANDEMIC"

Here's a reminder, too, about the "Getting Back to School Safely During a Changing Pandemic" event I will be hosting on my State Representative Facebook Page on Monday, from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.

As a parent in the time of COVID, it can be confusing to sort the significant volume of information coming at us daily--what is accurate or inaccurate when it comes to vaccines, masking, positivity rates, testing, and our children's mental health.

That's why I have gathered three local experts in children's health to help us sort through these topics including:

  • Dr. Chris Carroll, M.D., Professor of Pediatrics, University of Connecticut and Pediatric Intensivist, Connecticut Children's Medical Center
  • Dr. Meredith Barrows, M.D., local pediatrician;
  • Dr. Gary Zachariah, local psychologist and family therapist.

I hope you can join us Monday at 6 p.m.

Back to school

YOUTH CABINET LAUNCH

Calling all high schoolers! I'm launching my Youth Cabinet, which is a non-partisan initiative to provide high school students in Avon & Canton an opportunity to learn more about the policy making process at our State Legislature. Members of the cabinet get to share their ideas about solving issues that impact them most. The cabinet will meet once a month with me and local community leaders.

I forgot to include the Youth Cabinet application in the previous update but here it is.

Youth Cabinet

Each meeting will be focused on a particular issue area, allowing students and myself the space to have an in-depth discussion about the ways in which specific policies and proposals influence their lives and community. My hope is that we will come up with an idea for a bill that can be submitted and followed throughout the legislative process. Stay tuned for the time and date of the first meeting which will be held next month at Ben & Jerry's in the Canton Shops - and all are welcome to attend!

HAPPY SENIOR CITIZEN'S DAY

Today is Senior Citizen's Day! Check out older adult services such as:

  • Aging & Disability Resource Center
  • Medicare Savings Program
  • Money Follows The Person Program & More!

You can find it all by clicking on the image below:

Senior Citizens day