Connecticut
Connecticut companies sending crews to help the South recover from Helene
CONNECTICUT (WTNH) — Connecticut is stepping in to help as millions of people are still without power after Hurricane Helene hammered the Southeast.
“The size of the trees that have come down here is unbelievable, just gigantic trees everywhere,” United Illuminating Senior Manager of Regional Operations Christine Pariseau said.
Travelers relieved to make it to Connecticut ahead of Hurricane Helene
The devastation is unlike anything Pariseau has seen before. She said restoring power to millions is an arduous and urgent task and one that takes trained hands.
“Not a lot of people do this type of work so it is important to use the mutual aid,” Pariseau said.
That’s why UI in Connecticut is lending their hands with 28 line crews down in Virginia and North Carolina.
“They have 14 linemen here and that’s it so they need as much as they can get and so we bring support, mechanics and a few more people to make sure we are self-sufficient,” Pariseau said.
They left on Saturday, along with 45 additional crews from Avangrid in Maine and New York.
Eversource also sent 40 line crews and 20 support personnel from Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire to help out.
“No hotels have power down here so it’s been a struggle,” Pariseau said. “The guys have gotten quite a few thousand of people back on.”
Americares provides mutual aid to help the devastation of Hurricane Helene
Beyond utility repairs, Connecticut crews are also performing water rescues and wellfare checks.
The state’s Division of Emergency Management and Homeland Security said eight people from their Urban Search and Rescue Team are in North Carolina including swift water technicians, a state trooper and paramedic and communications engineer. They are also checking debris piles and vehicles that were swept down rivers.
Connecticut is helping out with another critical need: food.
Bear’s Smokehouse, that has two locations here, is offering free hot meals at their restaurant in Asheville, North Carolina. They are also launching a fundraiser to support ongoing relief efforts.
Connecticut crews have brought people to safety, restored electricity and given out free meals, really helping out in every way.
Most arrived last weekend and expect to be in Virginia and North Carolina for at least a week.
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LYME — A body was recovered from the Connecticut River on Saturday, according to officials from the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.
At about 1 p.m., a vessel on the river reported seeing a body in the area of the Chester-Lyme Ferry, DEEP said.
The Environmental Conservation Police, along with the Connecticut State Police Major Crimes Unit and Lyme and Cheshire fire departments, responded to the area and recovered the body, DEEP said. The body has been sent to the state chief medical examiner, DEEP said.
Bill Flood, a media relations manager for DEEP, said the body was identified as a male and appeared to have been in the water for an extended period of time.
The medical examiner will determine the manner of death and EnCon is investigating, Flood said, noting there is no believed threat to the public.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
Even as a born-and-raised New Yorker, I have a relatively open mind when it comes to pizza. When I’m out on the road, I’ll eat at any pizzeria as long as I can see the oven from the counter and buy pizza by the slice. However, the idea of any place outside the Big Apple proclaiming itself “the Pizza Capital of the United States” is just sacrilege. Connecticut doubled down on its ludicrous claim last weekend by approving the rollout of a special “Pizza State” license plate. This is the worst affront to the craft since Chicagoans started shilling their crust-bowl casserole as pizza.
Connecticut Foodshare
Let’s actually take a look at this license plate. One peek, we all know the rules. “The Pizza State” plate features a similar blue-to-white gradient as on the standard Connecticut license plate. The aforementioned self-proclaimed moniker replaces the state’s official nickname, “The Constitution State,” beneath the plate number. To the right of the number is an image of a pizza slice ripped straight from Microsoft’s ClipArt library. It’s a flat image that looks nothing like what’s served in New Haven. Connecticut drivers will be able to pick up a “Pizza State” plate for $65.
This is a pizza war for good
The only undisputedly good aspect of the “Pizza State” license plate is that its introduction will help feed Connecticut’s hungry. According to CT Insider, the $28.6 billion budget bill approved by the Connecticut General Assembly last weekend, which authorized the plate, also directly appropriated funding to Connecticut Foodshare. The sitewide food bank will also receive $50 from each $65 license plate fee, as it continues to provide millions of free meals to food-insecure people.
Back to the pizza debate at the heart of the matter. Governor Ned Lamont declared Connecticut the country’s pizza capital back in 2024 as part of a marketing campaign to promote the state. That declaration could have grounds for war in a different century, but individual states apparently don’t fight wars against each other anymore. Connecticut had better go back to being a UConn Husky-obsessed suburb before New York makes Greenwich the next Toledo.
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