Norwich – Garfield Avenue is closed this morning from Laurel Hill Avenue to Yerrington Avenue as crews work to clear a large tree that fell on wires, city officials said.

Several power outages occured Wednesday morning throughout the city, officials said.

John Johnson, foreman in the Public Works Department's streets and parks division, said the department is sending a backhoe to clear the tree.

Norwich Public Utilities said 16 customers in the Garfield Avenue area are without service, and the clearing is expected to take about two hours.

Between 4 and 7 a.m. NPU had about 1,000 customers on the East Side along Hamilton Avenue  without power because of a downed tree, NPU spokesman Chris Riley said. Another tree at Broad Street and Washington Street came down and knocked out power to about 900 customers.

Two smaller, brief outages occurred on Mohegan Park Road and near Norwich Technical High School. Norwich Free Academy and Kelly Middle School also lost power briefly, Riley said.

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