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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

CT Survey: Progress, not Perfection, in Sandy Response

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Wednesday, January 16, 2013   

HARTFORD, Conn. - As Congress tackled a second round of billions of dollars in Sandy relief, a new survey of Connecticut residents age 50 and older took a look at how well the state and local utilities responded to the megastorm and how that affected local residents.

John Erlingheuser, state advocacy director for AARP Connecticut, says the survey found 48 percent of local residents think the utility companies did a better job during Hurricane Sandy than in previous major storms, although most agreed there was plenty of room for improvement.

"Half the people thought either the utilities' performance was the same in 2012 in Sandy as it was during the storms in 2011 - or thought it was worse."

Erlingheuser says 77 percent of older Connecticut residents surveyed by AARP said they lost power during Sandy, and for 69 percent the power was out for four days or more. Nearly one in six reported their homes were damaged during the storm, with almost the same percentage saying they were forced to leave their homes because of Sandy.

Erlingheuser says one in eight Nutmeggers in the survey said the power outage also led to health-related complications, while those with disabilities were twice as likely to experience health-related problems, mostly because of equipment failure.

"Sixty-five percent of the people had equipment interferences as a result of losing power, in things like oxygen and so forth; and about a third of the people had issues with prescriptions, dealing with their storage, because of not having power."

He says 35 percent felt that local government did a better job during Sandy, while 22 percent thought its performance had declined.

"And those were the results. There was slight improvement, but more work needs to be done. We want to make sure that Connecticut and the regulatory agency at the Department of Environmental Protection and Energy get this information. "

Folks in Connecticut remain resilient, Erlingheuser says, with nearly half of those saying that, despite their own hardships, they provided help to others - as volunteers or by making donations.

Survey results are online at aarp.org/ct.


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