1. The nor’easter: 1 year later The nor’easter: 1 year later
By Frank MacEachern
Staff Writer
The most striking im-
ages for many residents
of the fierce storm that
raged through town last
March is of the untold
numbers of trees that
toppled over.
A drive through Green-
wich — when roadways
could be navigated in the
days following the storm
— was to look upon an
almost battle-scarred
landscape. Massive trees
that appeared to be sym-
bols of sturdiness were
lying on the ground or
suspended in mid-air,
held back from a thun-
derous landing only by
power lines.
It’s an image that re-
mains in the memory
of Bruce Spaman, the
town’s superintendent of
parks and trees.
“It was a remarkable
storm; we haven’t seen
anything like that in a
long time,” he said.
It was almost a perfect
storm, he said, as mild
weather and recent rain re-
sulted in the ground loos-
ening its hold on trees.
Many trees with rela-
tively shallow roots like
pine trees could easily be
ripped out of the ground
by the wind’s strength. In
addition, evergreen trees,
which do not shed leaves
in the fall, caught more of
the wind, making it easier
for them to be pulled out
of the wet ground, he said.
Town crews went to
work immediately, clearing
trees that blocked major
arteries through town. The
first priority was clear-
ing the major north-south
routes such as Lake Av-
enue that connect the Mer-
ritt Parkway to Route 1.
On Lake Avenue alone,
106 trees had to be cleared
from or near the roadway.
That stretch of road ac-
counted for more than 15
percent of the trees that
had to be cleared from
town roadways and right-
of-ways, Spaman said. In
all, the town cleared 644
trees, of which 34 percent
were town trees. The re-
mainder were private trees
that fell on town property
or roadways.
So heavily wooded is
Greenwich that a definitive
total for trees that fell on
public and private land will
never be known.
White pines accounted
for about 30 percent of the
fallen trees, Spaman said.
The second-hardest hit
was Norway spruce at 16
percent, with Norway ma-
ple and white ash tied at 9
percent. Sugar maple fol-
lowed at 7 percent, while
red maples accounted for
6 percent of the damage.
The remainder was from a
variety of species, he said.
The town hadn’t suf-
fered such widespread
damage to trees since
January 2006, when back-
to-back January storms
resulted in the town re-
sponding to a total of
about 525 incidents, Spa-
man said. That number
includes cases in which
trees or large branches fell
on town property or posed
a risk to the public, even if
they hadn’t fallen, he said.
Those 2006 storms
kickstarted the depart-
ment to develop a program
to identify problem trees,
Spaman said. His depart-
ment began an inventory
of trees that appeared to
be in poor condition and a
posed a threat of falling.
More than 400 trees
are on that list, Spaman
said. Though the town
has been regularly cutting
trees on the list, it con-
tinuously finds new ones,
and at times a storm will
badly damage a formerly
healthy tree. The town
will look to launch a four-
year, $1.7 million program
to care for trees along ma-
jor roadways in town.
The efforts have re-
ceived approval from two
organizations that are oc-
casionally on the opposite
sides of tree cutting.
JoAnn Messina, execu-
tive director of the Green-
wich Tree Conservancy,
said the group supports
the town’s efforts.
“We don’t think that
it should be trees at any
cost,” Messina said. “The
town has been very con-
servative.”
The conservancy has
been doing its part to get a
little more green back into
Greenwich, recently com-
pleting the planting of 370
trees on public lands. Its
next initiative will focus
on planting and caring for
trees along major roads,
starting with Hamilton,
Sound Beach and Lake av-
enues.
Mitch Gross, a spokes-
man for Connecticut Light
& Power, whose tree-trim-
ming practices the conser-
vancy casts a wary eye on,
said the utility backs what
the town is doing.
“Whatever can be done
to improve reliability is
certainly beneficial,” he
said.
Spaman cautions that
there is no foolproof meth-
od in preventing tree col-
lapse.
“There is a risk inherent
in trees whether they have
defects or not,” he said.
trees
Town works to
repair landscape
By Lisa Chamoff
Staff Writer
Technology has
helped some teachers
expand the boundaries
of their classrooms, but
when public schools lose
instruction time to bad
weather, it’s still mainly
a numbers game.
With schools closed
for a week last year af-
ter the March nor’easter,
which knocked out pow-
er and rendered school
bus routes impassable,
officials had to push the
last day of classes, as
well as graduation, back
five days to comply with
the state’s minimum
180-day school year.
A year later, Superin-
tendent of Schools Sid-
ney Freund said some
lessons were learned,
and taken into account
when he put together the
calendar for the 2010-11
school year.
Freund said he tried
to end classes as early
in June as possible. In-
stead of having off the
day before Election Day
last November, students
came to school, and a
professional develop-
ment day for teachers
was moved to Veter-
ans Day, when students
didn’t have class.
Freund said he was
also careful in call-
ing snow days, and de-
spite the snowy winter,
Greenwich only had
four this year, far less
than some other Con-
necticut towns. The last
day for Greenwich Pub-
lic Schools will be June
22 — a full week earlier
than last year.
Many private schools,
such as Convent of the
Sacred Heart, have con-
tingency plans that in-
clude online instruction
in the event of school
shutdowns. State stat-
utes don’t allow public
schools that same lux-
ury.
“I can have students
work online, but that
doesn’t help me in meet-
ing my 180 days of at-
tendance,” Freund said.
“We’re not there yet.”
Online learning does
happen to some degree,
however, so not all stu-
dents are left in the dark
when classes are can-
celed.
Fran Kompar, the dis-
trict’s library and media
coordinator, said most
teachers post homework
assignments on their
online portals. Others
use wikis, or simple web
pages that give all users
the ability to edit con-
tent, and discussion fo-
rums, allowing students
to answer various ques-
tions.
In icy January, some
teachers posted test re-
view information on-
line, so students didn’t
miss out on the review
sessions they would
have had if they were in
school.
“It is happening,”
Kompar said, “(but) it
isn’t happening in a sys-
tematic way.”
Officials are hoping
that will change, at least
a little bit. The district’s
new Student Informa-
tion System will even-
tually include an online
“drop box” for home-
work that will allow stu-
dents to hand in assign-
ments online, and allow
teachers to provide com-
ments digitally.
The district is cur-
rently in the third year
of a three-year technol-
ogy plan that is required
by the state. As district
officials prepare to re-
vise the plan, Kompar
said there will certainly
be discussion about ex-
panding online learning.
There are some limita-
tions, including students
who don’t have access
to a computer or the In-
ternet.
“The potential is
there,” Kompar said. “I
don’t know how long it
will be.”
Staff Writer Lisa Cham-
off can be reached at lisa.
chamoff@scni.com or
203-625-4439.
schools
District learns
some valuable
lessons from
nor’easter
Schools reopen.
March 2010 nor’easter: As it happened
Here is a timeline of the March 13, 2010, nor’easter and its aftermath:
2 p.m. Daniel Warzoha, the town’s emergency manage-
ment director, monitors the approaching storm and
informs First Selectman Peter Tesei it will be severe.
Storm hits around this time.
4 p.m. Town sends reverse-911 message. Green-
wich Emergency Services begins receiving calls by the
minute.
5:30 p.m. Roof collapses at Whole Foods Market on
East Putnam Avenue. Police Officer John Perna trapped
in cruiser as large tree falls onto his windshield.
6 p.m. Connecticut Light & Power pulls crews from
repair work due to rising danger.
6:30 p.m. June Einhorn, 61, struck and killed by falling tree
in backcountry. She is the town’s single storm-related fatality.
Calls at the police dispatch center skyrocket into the hundreds,
leaving dispatchers overwhelmed and scrambling to answer.





1:40 a.m. Tesei
declares state of emer-
gency. The storm
continues throughout
the night.
5:30 a.m. Tesei, previ-
ously at the Emergency
Operations Center at
Town Hall, gets his
first look at the damage
while driving to his Cos
Cob home.
CL&P reports 66
percent of Greenwich’s
27,955 customers
without power Sunday
evening.
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
Schools close indefinitely.
Commuters arrive to find Horseneck commuter lot
barred to them in order to station utility trucks. Some
commuters move barricades in order to get in. Police
are called to calm the situation.
Twenty-five new power crews from Ohio that arrived
late Sunday join the 25 CL&P crews in the cleanup.
Gov. M. Jodi Rell visits
town and speaks to town
officials, promises help.
CL&P tells town offi-
cials 99.9 percent
of Greenwich will
get power back by
Thursday night.
About 14,000
CL&P customers
are without
power Monday
evening.
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




Town officials criticize CL&P over its
response. CL&P chief says the utility
responded appropriately. Forty-eight
roads are still closed due to downed trees
and power lines.
CL&P has 70 crews working in town and
maintains power-restoration prediction.
About 700 trees are estimated to have
fallen, and CL&P says about 50 snapped
utility poles need to be replaced.
13,905 Greenwich customers without
power at 9 p.m.

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
35 percent, or 9,000 customers, remain
without power. CL&P now has 111 crews working
in town. The utility again predicts that 99.9
percent of customers will have power restored
by Thursday evening.
Greenwich Public Schools Superintendent
Sidney Freund announces that schools will be
closed for the week.
6,830 customers without power at 8 p.m.



CL&P reports 16 percent, or slightly less than 5,000,
homes and businesses remain without power.
CL&P adds another 10 crews to join the 113 working in
town as it expects to complete rebuilding the backbone of
its electrical system by the end of the day. CL&P projects
power outage total will fall below 1,000 by that time.
CL&P says about 125 utility poles were destroyed.
Ninety-five replaced as of Thursday.
More than 4,000 customers are still without power
as night falls.
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SATURDAY, MARCH 13
SUNDAY,
MARCH 14 MONDAY, MARCH 15 TUESDAY, MARCH 16 WEDNESDAY, MARCH 17 THURSDAY, MARCH 18
CL&P admits
it missed
power-resto-
ration target.
About 1,500
outages at
the start of
the day. That
total rises to
about 3,700
by noon,
but gradu-
ally dimin-
ishes to
1,535 by 9
p.m.

FRIDAY, MARCH 19
All but 125 customers have power
restored as of Saturday morning. The
number drops to 22 by 9 p.m.

SUNDAY,
MARCH 21
Tesei lifts state of emergency.
Handful of Greenwich residents
still without power.

SATURDAY, MARCH 20
MONDAY,
MARCH 22
timothy guzda/
staff graphic
Then and nowGreenwich was a battlefield in March 2010, pockmarked by torn-up turf, sidewalks, trees, houses and all manner of debris.
Here are some of the images we captured of the devastation, accompanied by photos of what the locations look like today:
THEN
Havemeyer Lane
NOW
Sound Beach Avenue
THEN now
“As the late afternoon progressed it really became
harrowing. I could not believe what was happening.”
Gary Silberberg, Dingletown Road resident, on helping stranded drivers on the road during the storm
East Putnam Avenue
THEN NOW
“I saw a Porta-Potty go flying by. I thought to myself, ‘Holy smokes.’ ”
State Sen. L. Scott Frantz, R-36th District, on the scene at Greenwich High School during the March 13, 2010, nor’easter
Mason Street East Putnam Avenue
THEN NOW THEN NOW
then photos by helen neafsey/staff photographer; now photos by bob luckey/staff photographer
The district’s new
Student
Information
System will
eventually
include an online
“drop box” for
homework that
will allow
students to hand
in assignments
online, and allow
teachers to
provide
comments
digitally.
A10 | Greenwich Time | Sunday, March 13, 2011 Sunday, March 13, 2011 | Greenwich Time | A11