Irene swept through Connecticut Sunday morning, leaving hundreds of thousands without power and one dead.
The Hartford Courant reports that over half a million houses in Connecticut are without power.
West Hartford declared a state of emergency after Connecticut Light and Power notified the town that crews will not be responding to downed power lines during the storm, Mayor Scott Slifka said.
Residents should continue to report fallen power lines and town crews will block them off, but CL&P will not be turning off power to the lines until the storm has passed.
NBC Connecticut places the number at 630,000 houses without power, as of 11:30 AM on Sunday. They note that the number is higher than in 1985 when Hurricane Gloria hit Connecticut.
What makes Irene different from Gloria, is that Gloria was a quick-moving storm. That hurricane blew into Connecticut and was gone in a few hours. Irene could be a longer-duration storm, with high winds for 6 to 12 hours.
One person was killed in Prospect, Connecticut in a fire apparently caused by wires knocked down by the storm.
Though the worst of the storm has passed the Connecticut coast, water levels remain a concern. In its 11 AM advisory, the National Hurricane Center stated the risk of "large, destructive, and life-threatening waves":
"An extremely dangerous storm surge will raise water levels by as much as 4 to 8 feet above ground level from western portions of Long Island island Sound eastward along the southern coasts of Connecticut, Rhode island and Massachusetts."
As the Courant reports, river flooding remains a concern as well