Vernon Center Residents On a String of Bad Luck With Outages

Sigh.

Another power outage in Vernon Center.

The latest was on Sunday, when 633 Connecticut Light & Power customers were without electricity from 7:30 to 9 a.m. - right when many were getting ready for church services.

On May 2, 2,200 Vernon Center customers were without power from 8:15 a.m. to about noon.

It does not take much for residents living in the area to become cranky and a little more paranoid with every flicker of the lights after enduring nearly a week without power after Hurricane/Tropical Storm Irene blew into town and nearly two weeks with no electricity after the October snowstorm. Almost immediately after the power went out on Sunday, residents took to Facebook to sing the woes.

Complaints were even a topic of discussion among Center Road School parents on Monday.

CL&P spokesman Mitch Gross said Sunday's outage was "one we see frequently at this time of year - a squirrel came in contact with a piece of our equipment on West Street."

But what about the three other minor outages over the past few weeks?

Gross looked up the recent outages and said it all has been a case of quirky coincidences. 

In one instance, a vehicle struck a utility pole. In another, a tractor-trailer tore down low-hanging phone lines.

In another, a tree took down a line as the utility was planning tree work in Vernon.