The City of Norwich and Norwich Public Utilities (NPU) opened their Emergency Operations Centers (EOCs) at 8:00 on Sunday, August 22, 2021.

Since Saturday evening, Tropical Storm Henri has tracked significantly toward the east, which should result in lower wind speeds but more rain for our area. This is still a very serious storm and we expect to have significant power outages and numerous downed trees.

We anticipate that the storm will increase in intensity during the next hour and move through Norwich over the next twelve hours. It is possible that we could have more than six inches of rain as a result of the storm, which is likely to cause localized flooding.

The City held a briefing this morning to confirm that all relevant departments and organizations were prepared for the arrival of the storm later this morning.

The Kelly Middle School on Mahan Drive is open as an emergency shelter and can provide meals to anyone who needs to relocate.

NPU just completed a call with its EOC team to review and discuss all preparations for every facet of NPU: Water, Wastewater, Natural Gas, Electric, Planning, Logistics, Finance / Administration, Customer Service, Safety, Public Liaison, and Human Resources.

At this time, there is a single outage in the vicinity of Old Canterbury Turnpike that is impacting about 100 customers; the outage was caused by a downed tree. NPU is working to remove the tree and restore power.

Our next update will be issued after the next EOC calls at 1:00 pm (City) and 2:00 pm (NPU)