The thread may have been a squib, but the storm was not, at least here in Connecticut. The center of the storm passed to the west of us, which is very unusual. (Hurricanes and tropical storms usually get pushed to the east by the prevailing winds before they hit us this far north.) Anyway, the storm track for Isaias put us on the windier side of the storm, which was made even worse due to the high speed of the storm itself as it raced north at 15-20 mph.
The bottom line is that well over half the people in Connecticut lost power. This has been one of the worst storms for power outages in state history, worse than Irene in 2011 and Sandy in 2012. Over a million customers lost power here in Connecticut, and as of this writing, six days after the storm, 145,000 customers are still without power.
The day after the storm, our electric utility Eversource was saying that “the impact Isaias had on the electric system is greater than Superstorm Sandy, and customers should plan for multiple days without power as crews work through extensive damage to make repairs.”
I work for a large sewer and water utility, and our facilities were running off of emergency generators for three days after the storm. Some people in the state aren’t expected to get power back until Tuesday or Wednesday (a week after the storm).