Montville — About 7 or 8 p.m. Wednesday, water pressure dropped dramatically in the Montville Manor neighborhood for several hours, and some found themselves without water.

Josh Cansler, general manager of the Southeastern CT Water Authority, said it was because of a Tuesday evening lightning strike in the well field a few hundred yards away.

"Lightning hit one of the control panels up there and zapped all the lines going to the wells," he explained, "so even though there was power to the pump house, the lines going out to the well field were zapped."

The tanks started running dry, though two wells still were operational. But people started using more water after coming home from work on Wednesday, prompting an alarm to go off about 7 p.m.

Cansler said SCWA brought in a tanker truck and starting hauling water from another pump station. By 1 a.m., he said, the agency got the wells running again by putting in some temporary lines, and everybody had water again.

On Thursday, SCWA went in and did a permanent fix by replacing the control panels.

Montville Manor, a neighborhood on the western side of town, is one of 16 areas of service for SCWA. Cansler said it comprises about 300 homes.

e.moser@theday.com