The weekend’s nor’easter brought heavy rain and wind, bringing down power lines and canceling events across the University of Connecticut and Mansfield area.
The storm arrived early Saturday morning, bringing wind gusts up to 50 miles per hour in some part of inland Connecticut, according to NBC Connecticut. Fairfield and New Haven shorelines also had Coastal Flood Warnings in effect.
As of noon on Saturday, Eversource reported over 28,101 outages, NBC reported. Most of those were in the Mansfield, Winchester and Montville areas. Throughout Saturday, Mansfield continued to have a significant number of power outages, including an outage at E.O. Smith High School, which cancelled the town’s 23rd annual Celebrate Mansfield Festival.
The festival had been moved inside for the first time in its history due to the storm, and it was eventually cancelled because the school was running on limited generator power, according to an announcement from the town. The office of the Mansfield Downtown Partnership, the organization that sponsors the event, was also left without power. The festival has not been rescheduled as of publication of this article.
Also on Saturday around 10 a.m., students at the University of Connecticut received a message via the UConnALERT system about a hazardous situation at Bonemill Road and Weaver Road near the Depot campus. Another alert about 40 minutes later clarified that the alert was due to “wires down and a power outage on the Depot Campus.” There was no imminent danger to the community, the alert said, but instructed students to avoid the area.
In total, Eversource reported seeing about 71,000 outages throughout Saturday, according to NBC. As of Sunday evening, Eversource is still reporting some outages, mostly caused by fallen tree limbs, around UConn and in the Mansfield area. The company, as of Sunday, had not yet announced an estimated time of restoration of power, as they were still evaluating the outages.
The storm canceled or relocated much of the Family Weekend and Homecoming activities at UConn as well. Most notably, the Student Union Board of Governors’ Homecoming Parade and Carnival, scheduled for Sunday afternoon, was cancelled ahead of the storm.
Saturday’s Family Weekend events, such as the Family Weekend Barbeque and the UConn vs. Miami (OH) football game watch party were moved indoors. Other events, like the Earth Science Fair and the UConn Dairy Bar Truck were cancelled. The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry was also closed Saturday due to a power outage affecting Downtown Storrs, though the museum reopened on Sunday.
The nor’easter is expected to continue through Monday. Winds are expected to have died down by Sunday night, though another one to three additional inches of rain are expected to fall Monday, leaving totals at about three to six inches of rainfall across the state, according to NBC.