Hartford - Well over 1,000 people swarmed the Connecticut Convention Center here Tuesday during a Homeowners Mortgage Assistance Event that local participants characterized as emotion-wrought and well-organized.

"There's no doubt it's a huge success in terms of the number of people we reached," State Banking Commissioner Howard Pitkin said in a phone interview from the event. "The sad part of it is that so many people need the help."

Pitkin said the number of people who showed up for mortgage assistance - about 1,200 already had been counted two hours before the event ended - demonstrated "significant remaining problems with foreclosures" in Connecticut. About 26,500 foreclosure cases are currently being adjudicated in the state's court system, he added.

Pitkin said people started lining up for mortgage help at 6:45 a.m. - more than three hours before the convention center was slated to open, prompting officials to start the event an hour earlier than planned. The numbers in line were double or triple what his office had expected, he said.

Melanie Scheuermann of Norwich was one of the earlier people in line and said she had a four-hour wait before meeting with a mortgage officer for less than 20 minutes.

"I at least feel better," said Scheuermann, who has been struggling to pay the mortgage on a Boswell Avenue home for two years now, ever since she and her husband lost their jobs nearly at the same time.

The Scheuermanns pay more than $2,400 a month for a mortgage on their modest home, and the amount jumps another $400 this month. Scheuermann said she is current on her mortgage, thanks largely to a state program that helped with payments, but with unemployment benefits running out in four months she's afraid she may lose her home.

Scheuermann said she sat down face to face with a representative of her mortgage company, HSBC Bank, but needs to produce some more paperwork before the lender will agree to a loan modification. She said, however, that several other people with whom she spoke received modifications at the event.

"The workers were accommodating," said Bill Marcavage of Uncasville, who lost his job at Foxwoods Resort Casino and went through a divorce at about the same time. "It was nice to see the state at least bring all the principal players together and offer some assistance to people that are in crisis."

Marcavage, like many others, was offered the choice of waiting hours to sit down with his lender, Wells Fargo, or be guaranteed direct contact from the company within five business days. Marcavage, who has been working with Catholic Charities to negotiate a loan modification, opted to head home and wait for a call.

Diane Farrar of Groton, another attendee who lost her job, said she was hoping to avoid a foreclosure on her home near the Shennecossett Golf Course. A judge has granted her extra time to try to sell the home - in which she still has some equity - but she expects to be forced out in January.

"As time goes on, I'm not going to have anything," she said in an interview before the event. "But the market is so bad, the house isn't selling."

About 15 mortgage lenders participated in the one-day event, and some were overwhelmed. Scheuermann said Bank of America, for instance, had seen only 13 people by the time she arrived, and one person she spoke with who was given the number 76 doubted he would be able to meet anyone during the event.

"We could have used triple the number of bankers that we had," Banking Commissioner Pitkin said.

One large bank, he added, indicated it had plans to return to the state in a month or two to attempt another round of mortgage workouts.

Attendees said they were heartened by the event but saddened by some of the stories they heard.

"I can see why people walk away (from their mortgages)," Scheuermann said. "Because they (the banks) really don't care."

Marcavage said one woman near him fell apart after telling another attendee her story. Luckily, planners had plenty of tissues handy, he said, for those who broke down.

"There were a lot of people who were saying 'I don't know if I'm going to be living on the street in six months,'" Marcavage said.

l.howard@theday.com