Thursday morning, power and trees are still down in most towns

By Wednesday night, the National Weather Service was calling it “Post-Tropical Cyclone Isaias” and declaring that it had moved into Canada and the U.S. government would no longer be reporting on its progress.
But here in the Tri-state region, Isaias was still very much present as thousands of homes and businesses remained without power, as roads remained closed due to downed wires and other debris and as work crews continued to cut up the trees and large branches that had fallen on roads and properties.
As of Thursday morning, there were no reports of lives lost as a direct result of the storm. There were some fire calls including one on Wednesday afternoon in North Canaan that involved serious injuries. Information on the outcome of that fire was not available Thursday morning.
Gas, ice and water
Of all the area towns, the two that were blessed with a modest amount of power loss were Salisbury and Millerton. Some businesses remained open in both towns — notably the gas stations. The Getty in Millerton was overflowing with cars at mid-day on Wednesday. The nearby Cumberland Farms had yellow sacks over all the gas tank nozzles, but cars were still parked in front of each of the gas tanks and every parking space in the lot was full.
The Patco station in Lakeville also had gas (and a large number of patrons, who seemed calm, polite and patient for the most part). Cars and pickup trucks were not only filling their tanks; many customers were also filling containers to take home, perhaps to use with generators and barbecue grills.
Ice and bottled water were in big demand all day Wednesday, at gas station convenience stores and grocery stores. By mid-day most stores had sold out. By the end of Wednesday, the Lakeville Patco had also shut its pumps down.
Most grocery stores were open, but with limitations. Stop & Shop in North Canaan had only emergency lights on; the freezers and refrigerated cases were all empty. Meat, dairy, frozen foods, ice cream were unavailable but shoppers came to the store looking for ice and other essentials. Sharon Farm Market was also open with restrictions. In Salisbury, LaBonne’s was up and fully stocked, with all the lights on. By mid-afternoon, the lines were long but not remarkably so. The store had already sold out of ice by that morning.
Nearby, Salisbury village businesses such as Provisions at The White Hart and Sweet William’s bakery and cafe were open. Relaxed patrons sat at outdoor tables sipping espresso drinks and eating pastries, perhaps enjoying the opportunity to feel normal in an abnormal week.
Salisbury’s good fortune
It’s not clear how Salisbury was spared so much of the damage that hit other area towns.
First Selectman Curtis Rand said Salisbury’s power outages were in the more wooded areas, around the Twin Lakes, Cooper Hill, Salmon Kill Road, and the area around the Great Falls (known as Amesville).
Rand said as far as he knew there were no injuries. A tree did fall on a moving car at Route 44 and Salmon Kill Road but the driver was unhurt.
He said the town crew has been busy clearing trees and debris off town roads. “We’ve reopened everything we can.”
Driving around Salisbury and Falls Village between 11 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Senior Reporter Patrick L. Sullivan observed that town road crews had been through and had cleared trees from roadways. There was a tree on the utility wires on Brinton Hill Road in Salisbury, and a pile of downed limbs encroaching on one lane of state route 126 between Routes 7 and 63.
Smells like Christmas
Lime Rock Station Road, where Sunday’s tornado had taken down an estimated hundreds of evergreens, “it smelled like the workshop at Housatonic Valley Regional High School when the FFA students and alumni are making Christmas wreaths,” Sullivan said, echoing a sentiment others had expressed.
Lime Rock Station is in Falls Village. On Wednesday morning, Falls Village First Selectman Henry Todd, reached just as he was heading out to tour the damage at about 10 a.m., said he was unaware of any injuries or serious damage to homes at that moment.
Todd said the entire town, with the exceptions of Amy Road, Kellogg Road (one side), Main Street and Beebe Hill Road, was without power. Todd said his understanding was that Eversource would start working on Canaan Mountain Road, then Undermountain Road and so on.
Driving around the region on Wednesday, an impressive amount of fallen trees and branches had already been cleared and many roads had been opened. But there was much work still to do and even by Wednesday evening it was difficult to travel from one town to another, especially with Route 7 closed between the Covered Bridge in Cornwall and Housatonic Valley Regional High School (very close to Lime Rock Station Road) in Falls Village. Sections of Route 44 were also closed, notably a part of the road that runs through the center of North Canaan.
Good and bad news, Sharon
In Sharon, an enormous tree limb had fallen on the historic Green, across from Town Hall. That section of Route 41/44 through the center of town was closed off; drivers were using the narrow, one-way Upper Main Street as a two-way alternate route.
Sharon Valley Road was closed off on Wednesday afternoon. Nearby on Rout 343, Paley’s Farm Market was open for business after having been hit hard by Sunday’s tornado. The winds from that weather event had ripped the covers off the farm’s greenhouses and twisted the metal frames. Several large trees behind the market had fallen and were being cleared up on Wednesday.
Owner Sarah (Paley) Coon and her brother, former owner and farm founder Charlie Paley, were there on Wednesday and seemed still stunned by Sunday’s damage but grateful that it hadn’t been worse.
On Sunday, the destroyed greenhouses were empty, Coon said. If the tornado had come through earlier in the year, in March or April, “That would have been it for this year,” she said ruefully.
Absence of power workers
On Wednesday, driving around the region, the usual abundance of Eversource workers and trucks was absent. Two Frontier telecommunications repair vans were spotted. Only one power company worker was seen. Eversource said the damage from Isaias ranked among the worst the state had ever experienced.
Many Northwest Corner residents still remember the October snowstorm of 2011, which dumped about 2 feet of snow statewide and left hundreds of thousands of customers without power for between 5 and 11 days.
Eversource has not yet offered estimates on when customers will be back on line.
In an email on Wednesday, the company said, “This storm’s impact, in terms of Eversource customers affected in Connecticut, is one of the largest on record. As a result, we are asking customers to prepare for multiple days without power.”
The company said on Wednesday that it was doing assessments from the air of the extent of the damage.
One Eversource worker was on Route 7 in Falls Village on Thursday morning. He pulled around into the 50 Main St. station and took a moment to speak with The Lakeville Journal’s Janet Manko.
“We are all here who are always assigned to these towns,” he said, “but it’s a lot for one guy to do. And everyone cleaning up what is like a disaster area has to be careful. There can be wires that are dangerous and you can’t see where they are.”
He said the scope of the cleanup is the worst he’s seen, even worse than following Sandy and others from recent years.
Governor, AG take action
The power company had announced a rate increase last week. Attorney General William Tong and Gov. Ned Lamont immediately expressed anger with the rate hike, which was then suspended by the state Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA).
Some area power customers complained that,when they tried to call Eversource to report an outage, they were left on hold with a repeated message in which the power company expressed unhappiness with the decision to deny the rate hike.
Lamont declared a statewide state of emergency on Wednesday and then appealed to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for a presidential emergency declaration.
“Approval of an emergency declaration would allow the state to request direct federal assistance to supplement state and local efforts to save lives and protect public health and safety during this ongoing crisis,” according to an announcement from the governor’s office.
“The governor’s request also includes a potential 75 percent federal reimbursement of Category B state and local emergency protective measures.”
Lamont also announced an investigation into Eversource and its efforts to restore power to the state. A press release on Aug. 5 said, “The governor said that the companies’ response to the storm has been wholly inadequate and does not meet the obligations for the critical resources they are responsible for providing on behalf of Connecticut residents. He wants to know what specific steps the companies took in the lead up to Tropical Storm Isaias, which had been forecast to impact Connecticut several days prior to making landfall and remained relatively on the track that meteorologists had predicted.”
The news release said Lamont is asking PURA to:
• Consider whether the utilities were adequately prepared and have the resources they need to respond to significant weather events;
• Evaluate their response and whether it met regulatory and statutory requirements;
• Determine whether resources that were invested into their outage response system was prudent in light of the recent system failures; and
• Determine whether civil penalties should be applied
COVID-19 continues
Meanwhile, the governor’s office continued to offer updates on the number of COVID-19 infections and deaths, which are still rising. On Wednesday, the report said there are 1,543 confirmed cases in Litchfield County, up from 1,537 on Tuesday and 1,535 on Monday. The number of COVID-19 deaths has remained steady for several weeks at 117 in Litchfield County; and at present there is only one person reported hospitalized because of the coronavirus.
Outage update
Eversource’s outage listing was not accurate at some points during the storm and in its immediate aftermath. As of Thursday morning, it seemed to be working again. At 10:30 a.m., the impact on Northwest Corner towns was reported as:
• Canaan (Falls Village), 74.07% customers affected (971 out of 1,311)
• Cornwall, 99.09% customers affected (1,200 out of 1,211)
• Kent, 90.04% customers affected (1,944 out of 2,159)
• North Canaan, 84.84% customers affected (1,248 out of 1,471)
• Salisbury, 40.45% customers affected (1,217 out of 3,009)
• Sharon, 82.48% customers affected (1,789 out of 2,169)
The list of towns and impacts can be found at https://outagemap.eversource.com. If you are able to access the internet from a computer, you can see the town-by-town listing by clicking Connecticut under Customer Outages in the menu to the left of the map. If you are on a mobile device, touch Menu, then Customer Outages, and finally Connecticut.
Some towns are offering charging stations. In Sharon, for example, charging for mobile devices was available on Wednesday at the firehouse.
LAKEVILLE — Nearly a month after closing the public hearing on the proposed Wake Robin Inn redevelopment, the Planning and Zoning Commission began its deliberations last week over the course of two special meetings devoted solely to the controversial project.
Over four hours of discussion helped the Commission to establish its position at this stage in the process, about a month before its statutory window to render a decision expires on Nov. 13.
By the end of the Oct. 9 meeting, the commission’s five voting members were split in their inclination towards approval or denial, with Secretary Martin Whalen and Regular Member Bob Riva indicating a favorable view, Vice Chair Cathy Shyer and Chair Michael Klemens leaning towards denial, and Regular Member Allen Cockerline expressing reluctance to suggest a vote before further conversation.
“We have more questions that have not been answered,” Klemens said.
“I think we’d all agree to that,” replied Cockerline.
The fundamental nature of those questions is: is the project still too big? And how does the Commission quantify “too big?”
This marked the second time the Commission has sat down to weigh the merits of an expansion proposal for the Inn. The applicant, Aradev LLC, had withdrawn a previous application in December 2024 after four of the five voting members indicated they would likely deny it. Since Aradev resubmitted a revised application this spring in response to feedback from P&Z and Salisbury residents, many neighbors have remained vocal in their continued opposition to the project, both during the public hearing and through community organizing.
Last week several commissioners expressed their gratification with Aradev’s responsiveness to the feedback and the thoroughness of the revised application, though the overall size of the development remained controversial. Cockerline praised the new proposal’s stormwater management plan in particular, which he described as “beyond anything I could’ve imagined.”
He also said it would note a marked improvement to the Inn’s current condition which he characterized as “functionally obsolete.” It should have been renovated 20 years ago,” he said on several occasions over the two meetings.
Klemens said that the application is “much better designed this go around, but still large.”
Shyer took a harder stance, one that echoed the sentiments conveyed in many a neighbor’s testimony during the public hearing. “The bottom line is, this is a big development,” she said. “It’s as big as the last one.” While the new plans have downsized the room count and building footprint from 2024’s application among other alterations, many residents have claimed that the currently proposed expansion is, in terms of impact, nearly identical.
Klemens closed in on a sentence in the town’s zoning regulation 803.3 that addresses impact on neighboring properties in the case of a special permit application as fundamental to the Commission’s deliberation. The clause states that the development may not “cause undue concentration of population or structures,” which Klemens said that, while a tricky thing to define, is the crux of the matter: “I think that’s been the heart of the whole thing. It’s the size; it’s the increase.”
Shyer suggested traffic as a potentially quantifiable metric by which the Commission could determine if the redevelopment is proportionally inappropriate for the location. Before the next meeting, which is scheduled for Oct. 16 at 7 p.m., the Land Use Office will seek data on how ingress/egress by Inn guests and restaurant goers will affect, by percentage, the number of cars at busy Lakeville intersections.
P&Z’s attorney Charles Andres was asked to seek out case law where “undue concentration” has been used as a basis for special permit denial. He said that the language, having appeared in the first national zoning enabling laws in the 1920s, is antiquated and has been phased out of many regulation books. He agreed that examples of its use in the special permit context will be helpful in pinning down such a vague concept.
The roof of the Grove was damaged by the tree, the event tent was punctured, a chef was injured and the Jubilee Luncheon was canceled Sunday, Oct. 12.
LAKEVILLE — The Lakeville Journal and The Millerton News Jubilee Luncheon fundraiser at the Grove Sunday, Oct. 12 was canceled after a very large section of a tree fell on the caterer’s tent at about 10 a.m.
Most of the catering staff heard the tree breaking up and got out of the tent in time, but the chef was hit by the falling limbs and sustained non-critical injuries.
A portion of the Grove’s roof sustained damage and branches came through the tent.
The Lakeville Hose Company responded to the scene. The chef was transported to Sharon Hospital by the Salisbury Volunteer Ambulance Service.
“While we’re deeply disappointed to cancel our annual fundraising event, our first concern is for our caterer’s chef, who was injured in the incident and is now recovering at home,” said James Clark, Publisher. “We’re grateful there were no more serious injuries, and we deeply appreciate the understanding and support of our honoree, underwriters, and guests.”
The incident occurred during preparation for the event, which would have centered around the presentation of the Estabrook Community Leadership Award to Bunny Williams.
Food that The Marketplace had prepared for the event was donated to People’s Pantry in Great Barrington.
Emergency responders block Amenia Union Road in Sharon Saturday, Oct. 11, while responding to the vehicle crash.
Updated Oct. 13, 9:25 a.m.:
SHARON — Shea Cassidy-Teti, 17, of Salisbury, died Saturday, Oct. 11, in a tragic car crash on Amenia Union Road in Sharon.
Connecticut State Police reported Charles Teti, 62, was driving his Jeep Grand Cherokee northbound on Amenia Union Road when, for an unknown reason, the vehicle crossed the southbound lane and exited the roadway where it struck a tree and home. Airbags deployed.
Teti and front seat passenger Aidan Cassidy, 63, sustained serious injuries. Teti was airlifted to Hartford Hospital and Cassidy was transported by ambulance to Sharon Hospital for treatment.
Shea Cassidy-Teti was in the back seat and sustained fatal injuries. He was pronounced dead on scene.
Cassidy-Teti was a senior at Kent School. He played on the football and tennis teams.
The residence that was struck is located at 35 Amenia Union Road.
The case remains under open investigation. Witnesses are asked to contact Trooper Lukas Gryniuk at Troop B 860-626-1821.
The residence at 35 Amenia Union Road sustained damage to the front of the structure, which can be seen from the street through the trees. Oct. 13.Photo by Ruth Epstein
LAKEVILLE — Rhys V. Bowen, 65, of Foxboro, Massachusetts, died unexpectedly in his sleep on Sept. 15, 2025. Rhys was born in Sharon, Connecticut, on April 9, 1960 to Anne H. Bowen and the late John G. Bowen. His brother, David, died in 1979.
Rhys grew up at The Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, where his father taught English. Attending Hotchkiss, Rhys excelled in academics and played soccer, basketball, and baseball. During these years, he also learned the challenges and joys of running, and continued to run at least 50 miles a week, until the day he died.
In 1982 after graduating summa cum laude from Harvard College, Rhys returned to Hotchkiss to teach biology, where he met his wife of 35 years, Rebecca (Becky) Snow. After two years of teaching, he worked at a research field site in Borneo, then went on to the University of California, Davis where he earned a PhD in Animal Behavior in 1995.
Rather than follow an academic tenure track, Rhys preferred the solitary focus of field ornithology, and he spent several decades researching the ecology of bird species in California and on Cape Cod and the Islands. Rhys believed passionately in supporting biodiversity through habitat preservation. His proudest achievements, therefore, came through his work for the Lakes Region Conservation Trust, in New Hampshire, where he served on committees and the Board of Trustees for twenty years, including three years as Chair.
Deeply intellectual and curious, Rhys learned Homeric Greek so he could read The Odyssey and The Iliad in their original language. An amateur Melville scholar, he would wax poetic about reading Moby-Dick for the umpteenth time.Rhys’s spirit was filled by the performing arts. Concerts by the Handel and Haydn Society and Boston Early Music Festival often brought tears to his eyes, while Boston Bluegrass Union shows delivered toe-tapping fidgetiness.
Rhys will be missed by his wife, Becky Snow, his mother, Anne Bowen, extended family, friends, and anyone who had the pleasure of knowing him.
A service will be held at The Hotchkiss School chapel on Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025 at 1 p.m..
In honor of Rhys’s memory, donations can be made to the Lakes Region Conservation Trust.