Updated 4:45 p.m. Sunday
At 4:45 p.m. Sunday, 27.7% of New Canaan homes remained without power, according to Eversource.
The New Canaan YMCA will be available 5:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday for those seeking to shower and charge their devices, according to the Russ Kimes III, the town’s director of emergency management.
Original Article
More than half of New Canaan remained without power midday Sunday after powerful storms struck the town and region on Independence Day.
Families attending the beloved picnic and fireworks at Waveny fled the park minutes into the show—itself pushed up in the evening due to impending storms—as powerful wind and rain moved in.
Park Street near the entrance to Mead Park on July 5, 2026. Credit: Carl Franco of Franco’s Wine Merchants
As of 12 p.m. Sunday, 53.75% of Eversource’s New Canaan customers remained without power, according to the utility company. The figure represents 4,957 households.
The company is “focused on clearing blocked roads with power lines, then will transition to service restoration,” New Canaan’s emergency management dircector, Russ Kimes III, said in a townwide outcall Sunday morning.
“Eversource has not provided any time estimates for any service restorations in New Canaan,” he said. “Treat every downed line as if it were a live wire, do not remove barricades or police tape blocking roads with downed wires.”
Walter Stewart’s Market is open and operating Sunday.
Eversource President of Connecticut Electric Operations Don Scacco said in a statement: “This storm was significantly more powerful and widespread than was forecasted and caused substantial damage in several states throughout the entire region, including Connecticut, and we continue to assess the widespread and extensive damage to the electric system. The intense storm with up to 65+ mph winds brought down tree limbs and branches onto electric lines and equipment causing power outages in communities across the state. Our crews in the field worked all night and remain on the job responding as quickly and safely as possible to address community priorities such as blocked roads while also clearing damage and making necessary repairs to the electric system and will continue working around-the-clock until every customer has their power back on.”
Very disappointed there is zero restoration activity at wahackme site and zero update from anyone
Unbelievable to have not cancelled it. Lightning is frightening, & deadly.Wonder what would Steve Benko would have done knowing he cared enough to show concern & never put people at risk, Shame on all who allowed crowds to gather. Weather alerts were given hours before allowing people to gather.
Agree! The fireworks should have been postponed until the following week.
Steve Benko would have canceled without out a doubt and would not knowingly put lives in danger. It’s very disappointing what has happened to this town .
While it is a shame what happened Saturday night on the 4th at Waveny, thankfully there were no tragedies. For sure there is blame all around for not having been more aware that there could be severe storms. It is easy to blame the Town , but at the same time parents and all adults need to be more mindful of “alerts” that we all capture on our phones and make sensible decisions in what plans we make for events such as these.Again thankfully there were no catastrophes! Enjoy the summer!
You are correct, however our constituents based their judgement on the direction of the town’s officials.
We are lucky that G-d was watching over our families, especially the children and elderly that were in attendance.
There were Coast Guard and NOAA Marine Warnings over LI Sound to seek shelter in port immediately at 7:30PM. Warning of hail and 60-70 mph winds. Weather radar showed a bowing front with blue and purple heights ( indicative of damaging straight line winds, hail and possible tornadoes) Severe Thunderstorm Warnings and Watches for our area all afternoon. Why risk injury to residents especially young children and the elderly?
WHO dropped the ball? Did they care about the vendors who set up more than our constituents?
Not good!
Thank god no one was killed. This is one of the biggest mistakes town officials have made in my lifetime and yet no one from town hall has said anything yet to the towns people about this and that shows there true character.
A reckless decision for what should have been a monumental display. Setting off fireworks in daylight smacks of desperation but to expose people to this storm, when we had been pre warned felt like they just wanted it over with.
From Thursday on, the weather forecasts indicated rain and severe weather for the entire weekend. This event should have been postponed until the weekend of the 11th. This is what happens when you take the planning and management of this event from a Family 4th Committee that always put safety first and hand it over to one man, David Shea, who apparently wanted to show what a wonderful of a job he did and in doing so put families at risk.
I don’t know if Mr Shea made the final call, but whoever did, should be relieved of their duties. This decision needs to be addressed by the Town’s highest officials and all those that invested in this event should be reimbursed.
On the Town website for 250 celebration:
The America250 New Canaan Planning Committee, established by First Selectman Dionna Carlson and chaired by Administrative Officer Tucker Murphy, has 18 members from across town organizations. The celebration runs from June through November.
However, several years ago The Family Fourth Committee was changed to the New Canaan Fireworks Committee with the following members:
https://www.newcanaan.info/government/committees/new_canaan_family_fourth.php
For months this committee worked very hard to review what was done in the past and to make improvements to the traffic flow and operations. Mr. Shea gave a monthly update reports to the Parks and Recreation Commission:
https://newcanaanite.com/price-for-pass-to-july-4th-fireworks-up-5-to-40-14487437
I thank this committee for the countless hours they spent organizing this event.
I saw a 3 truck crew just waiting by the roadside for 3 hours at Grupes reservoir. It might have been longer but that’s when I passed by them. Maybe they were taking a break from the rain.
Either way, our emergency management has no idea how many crew are working in town or which major outage groups are being worked on next. They are just parroting percentages from the outage map.
As seniors who had purchased a pass we decided to forgo the Waveny festivities due to the excessive heat warnings. Instead, we opted to watch the fireworks from the high school soccer field. Thank God we did. Only twenty feet to the car before the winds hit. Saw two pretty fireworks and then disaster.
Many families with children in wagons. And so many walkers trying to get home with lightning bolts all around. Very frightening!
How about the wonderful police force trying to help people cross at Farm Rd and Old Stamford Rd when the rains and severe winds hit? They are to be commended!
What a shame those in charge did not postpone for one week given the very well documented forecast.
They should thank God that no one was injured by the weather or the melee that followed such an exodus from Waveny.