Rain, wind buffet southeastern Connecticut

Heavy rains and high winds battered southeastern Connecticut throughout the day and night Saturday, toppling trees and bringing rivers and streams near flood-level in low-lying spots.

Police and fire officials across New London County, busy keeping up with the high volume of emergency calls, were not available to comment or provide details late Saturday, but several streets in New London were blocked off throughout the night by transformer fires, dangling power lines and fallen trees.

Mitch Gross, a spokesman for Connecticut Light & Power, said trees breaking poles and taking down wires were the chief cause of outages everywhere across the state.

At 10 p.m. there were just over 67,000 customers without power in the state, mostly in lower Fairfield County, he said.

"We’ve taken our crews off the roads in lower Fairfield County except for police and fire emergencies because right now, it’s not safe, it’s too dangerous for them to be out there because of the (high) winds," Gross said.

He cited wind gusts exceeding 60 m.p.h. in some parts of the state.

New London had 657 customers without power; East Lyme had 316; Stonington, 266; Groton, 12; and Montville, 51, Gross said.

"We have no estimates for restoring power," he said. "We’ll do it as quickly and as safely as we can."

The winds and wetness is expected to continue today and into Monday in Connecticut and across New England.

Around the state, police in Darien reported more than 50 trees had fallen in town, taking down power lines and closing roads. Residents of Fairfield’s shoreline were being urged to evacuate due to potential flooding.

In coastal Connecticut and southern Rhode Island, forecasters predicted rainfall Saturday night would total up to two inches.

In Boston, winds were expected to reach 55 mph, along with rains of one to two inches. In northwestern Massachusetts, ice and up to five inches of snow was forecast.