Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Residents have been waiting in long lines today to buy fuel for their cars and their generators.

Even though temperatures have warmed into the 50s, shelters are filled with elderly and disabled people who have no heat at home.

Utilities say residents will have to be patient. A spokeswoman for Connecticut Light & Power says it's had to reach out to as many as 15 states for repair crews. Authorities have said it could be next week before power is restored to the more than 1.7 million homes and businesses still in the dark.

Meanwhile, some town officials are worried that the cleanup will stretch their already-depleted budgets to the breaking point.

The borough manager in Ringwood, N.J., where hundreds of trees
were toppled, says "no communities budget for any kind of storm
this early."