Connecticut’s biggest utility is sending crews to help restore power in New York and New Jersey.
Connecticut Light & Power says it can spare the workers now that local restoration work has been completed in the wake of Superstorm Sandy.
The workers are leaving Thursday afternoon. A utility spokesman said the number of departing workers was not available.
More than 625,000 homes and businesses in Connecticut lost power from Sandy between customers of CL&P and United Illuminating, but both utilities hit their restoration targets early this week.
Outages spiked slightly from a nor’easter that hit Connecticut late Wednesday, but less than 500 CL&P customers were without power by midday Thursday.
An electric line construction company from Wilmington, Mass., has also been helping fix storm damage in New York City.
Crews from ElecComm worked Thursday to inspect the flooded, muck-filled utility tunnels that carry current to the Rockaway Peninsula in Queens.
Before they descended into the manholes, a worker from New York based Bancker Construction used a 3,400 gallon vacuum truck to suck up the sand that coated the underground cables.
Ed Sellman says the cleaning process helps ensure that crew members are not “working in mud like pigs.” It also helps them see what they’re doing.
Workers need to visually inspect as much of the underground system as they can for damage before the cables are re-energized.
It’s slow, painstaking work.