Residents keep warm at Town Hall

NORTH CANAAN — The scene outside Town Hall Monday was of one of devastation at the normally pretty little park adjacent to the parking lot. Small, conical-shaped trees that surround the fountain and benches were still in full leaf, not even having turned their autumn colors. They took the full brunt of about a foot and half of wet snow that fell Oct. 29 and 30. Branches snapped in all directions.Inside, volunteers had turned two meeting rooms into a shelter late in the weekend. North Canaan Elementary School is the designated shelter, but town officials were not able to get in Sunday. Both buildings have generators.Amid red-blanketed cots, small children happily played, one little boy shirtless in the welcome warmth. A mother said the cold was just getting to them, and with an electric stove, she couldn’t cook her children the hot meals that would have made the cold more tolerable.Two older girls were stretched out on a cot, playing games on a laptop. There was the air of a slumber party about the place. Volunteers were setting up more cots and filling a table with food, near a sofa and television.Selectman Charlie Perotti said he believes this is the first time a shelter has been used. During Tropical Storm Irene, the school shelter was set up, but no one came, he said.Others talked about how easy it is to hit a stage of hypothermia where one cannot get warm again. Extreme temperatures have a cumulative effect. Periods of relief are necessary for the body to regulate its temperature.The only thing missing was an opportunity to shower. Shelter volunteers said neither the school nor Town Hall have shower facilities — something they feel should be rectified. Locker rooms with showers were proposed for a past school renovation, but did not make it into the final design plan.Resident Bunny Edison, 90, said she was impressed that she had received a call Sunday asking if she needed shelter and a ride. “I thought I could stay, but I woke up during the night and I was shivering,” she said.In the morning, she decided to go to Town Hall, where she kept herself busy putting together Halloween goodie bags for local children.It was presumed trick-or-treaters would not be going door-to-door, but impossible to say for sure. As it turned out, many children did go out when power was restored in the town center Monday evening.With most landline, cell phone and Internet services down, the reverse notification system was essentially useless.State and town officials spread the news Monday that major transmission lines were damaged, accounting for the massive areas totally without power. An assessment of damage at substations that day was followed by removal of trees from and repair of power lines. Connecticut Light & Power was bringing in a reported 600 crews, but word then was that the transmission lines would not be repaired until Tuesday night. Some areas were expected to have power restored with those repairs, but most were expected to have to wait out substation and line work.On Tuesday morning, Gov. Dannel Malloy said CL&P was focusing on restoring power to town centers so that people could buy food and fuel. By then, only seven customers were still without power.