Gov. Ned Lamont toured areas of Litchfield County that were strewn with fallen trees and other debris on Tuesday as his administration and utility officials faced criticism over their response to a series of unusually powerful storms over the Fourth of July weekend.  Among the hardest hit neigh borhoods was in Harwinton, where approximately two thirds of residents were impacted by power outages during the height of the storm Saturday evening and early Sunday.  By Tuesday afternoon, when Lamont visited with a small delegation of state and federal officials, some roadways were still blocked by fallen tree limbs, which also damaged several houses. “The devastation here in Harwinton is really heavy,” Lamont said, according to a video of the event posted by WFSB. “Some real frustration with Eversource in terms of coordination, getting folks here.”  Gov. Ned Lamont during a press conference at a fire station in Torrington on Tuesday, July 7, 2026. Credit: Julia Levine / CT Mirror Lamont added that he heard a different response from residents during an earlier stop in Torrington, where most people had already had their power restored. “I just thank everybody for giving the utility guys a little bit of room, let them do their job, maybe give them a cup of coffee and thank them, and don’t touch the hot wires.”  Meanwhile, the two candidates hoping to unseat Lamont in this year’s gubernatorial race — Republican Sen. Ryan Fazio, R-Greenwich, and Democratic Rep. Josh Elliott, D-Hamden — criticized the response from Lamont and Eversource as inadequate.  Fazio said he visited impacted areas of New Canaan, in his senate district, on Monday and later travelled to Harwinton to tour damage with town officials on Tuesday. Fazio said there appeared to be a lack of communication between the Lamont administration and local officials, and he criticized the governor for waiting three days to visit impacted areas. He also said he questioned whether Eversource had appropriately monitored forecasts leading up to the storm or had enough crews on standby to respond.  “There was just a general kind of slowness and bureaucracy that slowed down the response in areas that were really badly affected,” Fazio told the CT Mirror on Wednesday.  Elliott, who has called for local governments to be allowed to take over electric utilities, released a statement Monday saying the response echoed a similar storm that knocked out power for many Hamden residents for several days in 2020.  “Eversource and UI having monopolies in their regions means we will just wait and hope for the best. Meanwhile, we are currently being asked to pay some of the highest energy rates in the country. We need an alternative to the for-profit monopoly that answers to Wall Street instead of working families. We need to invest in better infrastructure, including undergrounding lines so this doesn’t happen again,” Elliott said. A collapsed tree in Harwinton on July 7, 2026. Credit: Julia Levine / CT Mirror Crews worked to restore power to residents in Harwinton on July 7, 2026. Credit: Julia Levine / CT Mirror Tree limbs fell on a shed, splitting it in half, during Saturday’s storm in Harwinton. Credit: Julia Levine / CT Mirror A mailbox lay on the ground in front of a house hit by a falling tree in Harwinton on July 7, 2026. Credit: Julia Levine / CT Mirror A transformer from a downed utility pole on a lawn in Harwinton on July 7, 2026. Credit: Julia Levine / CT Mirror Power and telephone lines came down during a severe storm over the weekend in Harwinton on July 7, 2026. Credit: Julia Levine / CT Mirror In a statement responding to those criticisms, Lamont campaign spokesman Rob Blanchard pointed to the governor’s signing of a utility accountability law, dubbed the “Take Back Our Grid” Act, following the much-maligned response to Tropical Storm Isaias in 2020.  Among other reforms, the law required utilities to refund customers $25 a day if their power is out for more than 96 consecutive hours. “This weekend, mutual aid crews were on the ground within hours, and tens of thousands got their power back in a single day, even with a second storm right behind it,” Blanchard said. “That’s what accountability looks like. Josh Elliott’s energy plan is a fantasy with no funding and no timeline. Ryan Fazio spent his career voting against the grid investments that actually prevent damage. Neither one has earned the right to lecture anyone on storm response.” Eversource spokeswoman Jamie Ratliff said in a statement Tuesday that the utility had managed to restore power to more than 176,000 customers over the previous three days. By Wednesday afternoon, the company reported fewer than 1,000 remaining outages, mostly in Southington, Hartford and scattered towns in Western Connecticut.  Crews from across the country and Canada work with Eversource to restore power to residents in Harwinton on July 7, 2026. Credit: Julia Levine / CT Mirror Ratliff said that the “unforeseen” severity of the storm, as well as its impact across several neighboring states, limited Eversource’s ability to pre-stage crews to respond to fallen trees, broken poles and downed wires.  Ultimately, she said, Eversource relied on more than 700 line crews to restore power after the storm. Those include crews from Connecticut and Eversource’s other service areas in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, as well as contract workers from as far away as Canada, Pennsylvania and Missouri.  “We are all aware that the state is in the middle of an election year and that we are an easy target for all politicians of all parties” Ratliff said. “To us, our customers don’t belong to any political party and restoring them safely and quickly is our top priority as we respond to this event.” South of the hardest hit areas, United Illuminating, which serves customers in greater New Haven and Bridgeport, only experienced around 10,000 outages during the height of the storm. Angela Baccaro, a spokeswoman for the company, said UI was able to restore power to 99% of those customers by Monday without having to call in external crews. “The wind speeds and duration of this storm were that of a typical severe thunderstorm in our area,” Baccaro said in an email. “The impacts were aligned with recent history.” Mike and Lia Brignano pose for a portrait outside of their home in Harwinton on July 7, 2026. Credit: Julia Levine / CT Mirror Mike and Lia Brignano are among the Connecticut residents in Harwinton who still didn’t have power from the New England power grid on Tuesday. The couple instead relies on back-up batteries and solar energy, which they said they installed because of periodic outages, especially from larger storms.  Rosemary Webb, a meteorologist from the National Weather Service in Albany, which serves towns in Western Connecticut including Harwinton, said winds reached up to 80 miles per hour around Torrington on Saturday evening, categorized as hurricane-force winds by the agency’s wind speed guide. Webb said severe storms, like this one, are typically predictable after last week’s humidity.  After leaving for the holiday weekend, the Brignanos extended their vacation until Monday afternoon because neighbors said they wouldn’t be able to access their street. The couple described returning home to tree limbs “dangling” over houses and a shed split in half. One of their neighbors had a tree fall on her home.  The price to cut down dangerous limbs or trees now leaning from the storm winds is “astronomical,” Lia Brignano said. Mike Brignano is planning to rent a crane or a cherry picker to help his neighbor remove tree limbs over his house to prevent them from falling.  Some roads remained closed on Tuesday after a Saturday storm took down power lines and tree limbs. Credit: Julia Levine / CT Mirror Although the couple didn’t suffer any property damage, “it just makes me nervous that some of these branches may fall at any point,” Lia Brignano said, worried about her children playing in their yard.  During a press conference on Tuesday morning, Rep. Joe Canino, R-Torrington, said a tree also fell onto his aunt’s car in his district, just down the street from the town’s fire station.  At the same press conference, Lamont urged Connecticut residents to drive carefully around the remaining downed powerlines and road debris. ...read more read less