Conn. utility sends crews to New York, New Jersey

BERLIN, Conn. (AP) — Connecticut's biggest utility is sending crews to help restore power in New York and New Jersey.

Connecticut Light & Power, a unit of Northeast Utilities, says it can spare the workers now that local restoration work has been completed in the wake of Superstorm Sandy.

The workers are leaving Thursday afternoon. A utility spokesman said the number of departing workers was not available.

More than 625,000 homes and businesses in Connecticut lost power from Sandy between customers of CL&P and United Illuminating, but both utilities hit their restoration targets early this week.

Outages spiked slightly from a nor'easter that hit Connecticut late Wednesday, but less than 500 CL&P customers were without power by midday Thursday.