Malloy Tours Irene Ravaged Areas

Nearly half a million Connecticut residents and businesses are still without power after Hurricane Irene. Governor Dannel Malloy took a tour of storm affected parts of the state Tuesday.

Stopping at a hurricane ravaged beachfront community in Fairfield, Governor Malloy asked for patience in the face of continued outages.

"Energy is going be the big issue, and it's going to be the big issues for the next 7 days. That's a reality."

The Governor says utility companies Connecticut Light & Power and United Illuminating are working around the clock to restore electricity. And he emphasized that since the storm arrived, he's been warning that restoring power could take up to a week.

"The mere scope of this storm from North Carolina through Quebec and the number of outages is just tremendous -- and it is straining utilities across the regions ability to respond."

As of 4pm on Tuesday, more than 217 thousand homes and businesses had been reconnected. And backup utility crews have been called in from the Midwest and West Coast.

The companies must have certain priorities, Malloy. All hospitals have been reconnected. Now they're working to restore power to nursing homes and on getting kids back to school. Sewage treatment facilities and pump stations are also important.

The Governor says the utility companies are also working to get as many people as possible reconnected in the coming days.