When it comes to restoring power and clearing downed power lines from Sunday night’s storm in Stonington and North Stonington, it's a tale of two very different communities.

In Stonington, which had 657 customers, or 6 percent of the town, remaining without power Wednesday night, First Selectman Rob Simmons talked about working with Eversource to methodically address downed lines and trees and restore power across town. The outages were down from 5,878, or 73 percent, late Sunday night.

His counterpart in North Stonington, Shawn Murphy, where 529 customers, or 20 percent of customers, remained without power Monday night, harshly criticized the power company Wednesday for its lack of communication, organization and resources. Late Sunday night, 81 percent or 2,348 customers were without power in his town.

“Eversource is the most disorganized outfit. It’s a fiasco,” Murphy said Wednesday afternoon. “They don’t know who they have in town and what they have to fix.”

Murphy said he did not see the first utility and tree crews arrive in his town until 3 p.m. Tuesday. He said they later left and did not return until Wednesday afternoon.

He said Eversource asked the town Tuesday for a list of road closures, something the town had been reporting since the storm. He said that for two days firefighters stood by a downed power line in the area of routes 184 and 49 as it melted the pavement until a crew finally arrived to cut the electricity.

Murphy said that although he’s been speaking with an Eversource representative since the storm hit, that person has been unable to provide updated information on restoration efforts. Murphy said the power company needs to send a representative to each town who can then coordinate the response.

He said there are areas of town where residents can't leave their home or have emergency vehicles reach them because of downed wires. Others have to take long detours through Pachaug State Forest to avoid downed wires.

He said his office has been inundated with calls from residents who can't get through to Eversource.

“But we can’t get any information for them,” he said.

Schools were closed Monday and Tuesday in both towns. Stonington reopened Wednesday after power was restored to Deans Mill School, while North Stonington had a two-hour delay as buses had to navigate roads closed due to downed power lines and trees.

Murphy said that going forward, Eversource has to improve its list of outages, improve communication with its customers and more quickly assign restoration crews to small towns such as his.

“The problem in North Stonington is we don’t have the large numbers (of residents) and they go to large numbers when they are restoring power,” he said.

In Stonington, Simmons was not criticizing Eversource but saying crews on Wednesday were addressing areas on Island Road, Lord’s Point and East Forest Road on Masons Island, where downed wires were preventing residents and emergency vehicles from going in and out. He said power also was being restored to Barnes Road so classes could resume at Pine Point School. He said that while Farmholme Road was expected to regain power Wednesday, Al Harvey Road would not be restored until Thursday.

“They’re working hard and a lot of progress was made today,” he said, adding that Eversource has brought crews into town from as far away as Indiana and Missouri.

He said crews were working to remove a large tree from Elm Street and restore power to the American Velvet Mill. It may be much longer before the bridge over Quanaduck Cove on North Water Street is reopened, as a leaning utility pole driven into the bottom of the cove has to be replaced. Drivers now have to use North Main Street as a detour.

While there have been reports of residents harassing power company employees, Simmons pointed to a woman on Flanders Road who brought coffee and doughnuts to crews Wednesday as they worked.

“I’m so proud that people in my town are showing courtesy to these linemen who in some cases are far from home and could be killed doing a very dangerous job,” he said.

Simmons cautioned residents that in some cases, people who have had their power restored may see it go off as power crews have to de-energize lines for a time to fix single outages or those in more remote areas.

“It’s not the failure of the system but finishing getting your neighbors on line,” he said.

Simmons said Eversource has spent the past year trimming trees in town and if that had not been done, the outages would have been much worse.

“We’re already trimming trees and studying the capital investment we have to make (for coastal resiliency). But Mother Nature, she’s a tough lady,” he said.

j.wojtas@theday.com