UPDATED: 3,000 Bethel CL&P Customers Without Power

UPDATE: Midnight.  According to the CL&P media hotline, only about 6,600 people remain without power in Ct, however, Danbury and Bether remain among the hardest hit.  Most customers are expected to have their power restored by Thursday morning, with the goal of everyone being restored by noon.

UPDATE 10:00 p.m.  According to CL&P, power has been restored to 22,000 out of the 35,000 people who lost power throughout CT.  No word from CL&P on how well Bethel is doing.  Do you have power? Tell us your story in the comments!

Update:  6:24 p.m.  CL&P reports that as many as 23,000 customers in Connecticut are without power.  Mitch Gross, spokesman for CL&P, said that storm damage including high winds, lightning strikes, downed trees and wires are responsible for the outages.  

"There were 35,000 homes without power 90 minutes ago. But we have a long night ahead of us," Gross said.

The areas in Bethel that have been the hardest hit are Taylor Ave, Walnut Hill, and Chestnut Hill.  Grassy Plain is also without power, however that street may be on a Danbury power line.  Danbury was also heavily hit, with 2,900 homes without power as well.

There are no estimates at this time as to when power will be restored. No robo-calls have come from CL&P. Calls that have been received stated that power would be restored by 9 p.m.  According to Gross, that is not based on an estimate from CL&P, as the damage is still being assessed.  

A robo-call from The Town of Bethel (previously reported as CL&P) announced that 3,000 Bethel customers are without power due to problems with the Walnut Hill sub-station.  

According to Napoleon Alvarado, a chef at Per Tutti's Restaurant, the power went out at about 3:15p.m..  Traffic from Grassy Plain into Danbury at South Street and Shelter Rock is at a crawl, due to traffic light outages.  While most businesses have closed, some, like Per Tutti, than cook with gas, remain open.  

This story will be updated.