While Tropical Storm Irene”™s winds and water damaged some commercial districts, its impact on the electric grid had a far wider impact on Fairfield County businesses, from small companies keeping a lifeline to their customers on smartphones to chillers and freezers in grocery stores and restaurants going dark.
Some 650,000 Connecticut Light & Power Co. customers lost power in the storm, leading many retail outlets and town facilities to provide power outlets to customers needing to recharge cell phones, in addition to water spigots and other necessities. More than 100,000 United Illuminating Co. customers lost power in the aftermath of the storm, with Fairfield among the hardest hit municipalities. The New Haven-based company provides service in the Bridgeport area.
It was the widest power outage in the Northeast since the August 2003 blackout, which cut power to 45 million people in the United States for several days. By comparison, officials say some 5 million people in the Northeast lost power.
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy announced a business assistance program to help companies negatively impacted by the storm.
“Providing this type of assistance will ensure Connecticut companies get back to business, which in turn will help the state”™s economy stay on track in the wake of this devastating storm,” Malloy said in a statement.
Businesses sustaining damage will be eligible for assistance, including bridge financing and loans covering uninsured losses, through the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD). Financing options include:
Ӣ loans of up to $200,000 to companies for storm-related damage, including property, machinery and equipment, and working capital;
Ӣ loan guarantees of up to $200,000 will be provided to banks and other lenders to spur local lending to businesses impacted by the storm;
Ӣ grants will be available to businesses for assistance in disaster recovery, such as temporary help and training; and
Ӣ the state is offering to otherwise link businesses to state and federal resources.
DECD is making information available via a business assistance button on its website or by calling (860) 270-8215. It also created business assistance centers in partnership with the Business Council of Fairfield County at One Landmark Square Suite 300 in Stamford and with the Bridgeport Regional Business Council at 10 Middle St. on the 14th floor, in Bridgeport.
Insurance carriers were also quick to place storm information front and center on their websites, even as they positioned mobile claims offices near the hardest-hit areas.
Early estimates by Boston-based AIR Worldwide Corp. pegged the damage along the East Coast covered by insurance policies at between $3 billion and $6 billion, not including federal flood insurance claims and payments to states by the U.S. government. Neighborhoods in Shelton, Stratford and other Fairfield County towns were inundated with floodwaters during and after the storm.
“We worked with the insurance companies ahead of the storm to license an additional 1,900 adjusters on top of those we already have licensed in Connecticut, so homeowners who experienced damage due to Hurricane Irene could get an insurance assessment as quickly as possible,” Thomas Leonardi, commissioner of the Connecticut Insurance Department, said in a statement. “My department staff understand the situation we”™re in due to this storm, and they”™re ready to help.”
