The storms that spawned 4 tornadoes, a macroburst and several microbursts in Connecticut on Tuesday caused morre damage to the state's electrical grid than Superstorm Sandy, according to Eversource.

Tuesday's storms brought winds up to 110 mph to the state while Sandy's winds reached 85 mph.  Nearly 1,700 utility poles were broken during Sandy.  Tuesday's storms broke more than 1,800 statewide, Eversource said in a Facebook post on Sunday.  There were 288 miles of electrical wires torn down on Tuesday compared to 105 miles of wires during Sandy, Eversource said.

With the extensive damage, Eversource pushed back its deadline for full power restoration from Sunday to midnight on Monday.

The company released a statement Saturday explaining their crews are now accessing the toughest areas to reconnect in some of the towns hardest hit by Tuesday’s tornadoes and severe storms, and said, “we understand how trying it is for our customers to be without power and we truly appreciate their support and understanding throughout this power restoration.”

On Saturday night, scores of bucket trucks poured into parking lots at Central Connecticut State University in New Britain, as more than 800 electrical workers from Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire arrived to join the repair effort. Those workers are spending the night in CCSU’s dormitories.

In Oxford, where a tornado ripped trees from the ground and where 30 percent of residents remained without electricity for much of the day, lights are gradually coming back on. Deirdre Virgalla celebrated her family home’s reconnection just in time for her son’s birthday, telling NBC Connecticut, “thank you Eversource, we’re so excited.”

Across town, Joan Cox is still waiting for Eversource crews to reach the broken pole a few hundred feet from her home. Her family relied on a generator to get through the week, and is also supplying power to a neighbor. Cox says she’s just happy her family is safe, and she’s ready to “ride it out,” as long as her generator stays online.

Sunday was day five of cleanup after the storm tore through Southbury Tuesday. 

For Bill Faraclas, it still seems like the beginning as he faces more than a half-dozen trees toppled on his property. 

“Now it’s a matter of where do you start? And much of this is too dangerous to move without professional help,” Faraclas said. 

Around the area there are signs of progress. Roads have reopened, trees have been lifted off of damaged homes and Eversource crews have restored power to about 150,000 customers statewide. 

“Just got the power back on (Sunday). Just a little while ago. So, we’re getting there. We’re getting there,” Charlie Read, of Southbury, said. 

As for those still in the dark, Eversource promises an all-out effort to fix the historic damage. 

“We continue to make progress. We’re pushing on as hard and as quickly as we can, keeping in mind safety is always job number one,” Eversource spokesman Mitch Gross said. 

Now it’s possible to get around and also take in the scope of the impact. 

Trees appear to have been steamrolled over. Kettletown State Park is one of four in the state that remain closed due to severe damage and neighbor after neighbor deals with a long recovery. 

“One has to resist being in a state of shock,” Faraclas said. 

People are thanking the crews who have now restored power to many in town except around 800 as of Sunday night. 

And they also credit the community for coming together to help each other out. 

About 1 in 5 of Oklahoma's school districts have switched to a four-day week to deal with budget cuts and recruit quality teachers amid a nationwide teacher shortage and pay crisis, NBC News reported.

"Just because we've been doing it one way for a long time doesn't mean we necessarily need to keep doing it that way," said Dr. Bob Gragg, superintendent of White Rock School in the tiny town of McCloud.

A school district near Denver will this fall become the first large urban district in the United States to shave a day off its schedule. Parents, teachers, administrators and scholars say the shift brings better performance, attendance and morale.

But larger metropolitan areas could see disruptive knock-on effects as parents look for child care and older kids have an extra day in their weekend to tempt them into trouble, critics and education experts say.

The technology can be as small as a suitcase, placed anywhere at any time, and it's used to track cell phones and intercept calls.

The News4 I-Team found dozens of potential spy devices while driving around Washington, D.C., Maryland and Northern Virginia.

"While you might not be a target yourself, you may live next to someone who is. You could still get caught up," said Aaron Turner, a leading mobile security expert.

The device, sometimes referred to by the brand name StingRay, is designed to mimic a cell tower and can trick your phone into connecting to it instead.

The News4 I-Team asked Turner to ride around the capital region with special software loaded onto three cell phones, with three different carriers, to detect the devices operating in various locations.

"So when you see these red bars, those are very high-suspicion events," said Turner.

If you live in or near the District, your phone has probably been tracked at some point, he said.

A recent report by the Department of Homeland Security called the spy devices a real and growing risk.

And the I-Team found them in high-profile areas like outside the Trump International Hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue and while driving across the 14th Street bridge into Crystal City. The I-Team got picked up twice while driving along K Street — the corridor popular with lobbyists.

"It looks like they don't consider us to be interesting, so they've dropped us," Turner remarked looking down at one of his phones.

Every cellphone has a unique identifying number. The phone catcher technology can harness thousands of them at a time.

DHS has warned rogue devices could prevent connected phones from making 911 calls, saying, "If this type of attack occurs during an emergency, it could prevent victims from receiving assistance."

"Absolutely. That's a worry," said D.C. Councilwoman Mary Cheh, adding that the spy technology should be a concern for all who live and work in the District.

The I-Team's test phones detected 40 potential locations where the spy devices could be operating, while driving around for just a few hours.

"I suppose if you spent more time you'd find even more," said Cheh. "I have bad news for the public: Our privacy isn't what it once was."

Especially in her ward, where many of the streets are lined with embassies.

"They're doing the interrogation, or [checking] who we are, and then the white bar represents when they release us," Turner said as he demonstrated his technology.

The phones appeared to remain connected to a fake tower the longest, right near the Russian Embassy.

The I-Team got picked up twice off of International Drive, right near the Chinese and Israeli embassies, then got another two hits along Massachusetts Avenue near Romania and Turkey.

All of those countries have the phone catcher technology, Turner said.

"You know governments do this to each other all the time and laws-schmaws," said Cheh.

Which is a problem.

The spy technology poses a risk to national and economic security, but there's little our government can do to stop devices located on foreign soil.

"A law that we had could not tell these embassies what they can and cannot do," said Cheh.

The phone catchers can also be combined with other technology to listen-in or grab data from phones that are connected, Turner said.

"Most people don't know about it," said Alan Butler, senior counsel for the Electronic Privacy Information Center.

"There's no magic software or setting that protects you from these," Butler said.

Butler is also a D.C. resident.

"There's a lot to be concerned about," he said.

Particularly since DHS hasn't disclosed how many devices it found or where. The agency also said it did not determine who was operating them, which Butler finds unacceptable.

"I think they should be taking the time and investing the resources to identify them and to flag them to the carriers and find ways to either have them taken down or have them blocked," he said.

Turner said cell carriers can't completely secure our phones because they have to allow for law enforcement access. Plus, even the oldest phones must be able to reach 911, so low-tech vulnerabilities can't be closed.

"I don't think there's a magic fix here," said Turner. "I don't think Congress can mandate anything to say, Hey, carriers do this right now."

The good news is about half the devices the I-Team found were likely law enforcement investigating crimes or our government using the devices defensively to identify certain cellphone numbers as they approach important locations, Turner said.

The I-Team test detected devices in operation near Langley, the Pentagon and Fort Myer, but also found them in residential areas like Bethesda's Kenwood neighborhood, near Palisades in DC and along Old Dominion Drive in McLean, which Turner said raised questions.

"Maybe someone is involved in high-level negotiations on a business deal, or maybe it's a government employee involved in a regulatory ruling," he said, adding that he's heard of the devices being used in a corporate espionage situation, which is illegal under United States law.

You can't control which tower your phone attaches to, Turner said, so you can't avoid being caught by a device.

So if you've ever wondered why you just can't make a call from inside your home or office: "It could be why," said Turner. "[It's] a good reason to have a land line."

But you can protect your calls and texts by downloading free calling and texting apps that use encryption instead of using the standard ones that come installed on your cellphone, he said.

Reported by Jodie Fleischer, produced by Rick Yarborough, and shot and edited Jeff Piper.

Carjackers stole a car with two young children inside from New Britain Sunday evening and police said the children were dropped off and pushed to the sidewalk, but they were not seriously injured. Police are looking for the carjackers.

Police responded to a gas station in the 300 block of Columbus Boulevard at 5:07 p.m. Sunday to investigate a carjacking. A woman was pumping gas as a 7-year-old child and a 3-year-old were in the car when teens pulled up in a silver Honda, pushed the woman over and took her vehicle, according to police.

The woman went into the store and asked a clerk to call police.

The two children were found on Cliff Street in New Britain.

A resident who saw a group of males drop off the children and push them to the sidewalk called police and stood with the children until police arrived, police said.

The carjackers fled and West Hartford police later saw the stolen vehicle heading toward Hartford, but they were able to stop it. The vehicle was later found abandoned in Hartford.

The New Britain Police Department’s Criminal Investigations Division is handling the investigation and witnesses are asked to call Sergeant John Blackmore at (860) 826-3171.

Tolu Adeniji did not know how to play any sports when she entered AF Amistad High School, but that did not stop her. That perseverance is paying off and the student-athlete has several college acceptances to choose from, including several Ivy League opportunities. 

Adeniji’s first sport at Amistad High School was soccer. Then she added lacrosse and her list of activities got longer as she saw sports keep her schedule structured. 

“I joined all of my other clubs and then I got a job because I was like, why not? I feel like I can handle this,” Adeniji, who is now a senior, said. 

It’s that attitude has also led to a long list of college acceptances for Adeniji.

“I got into Yale early action and then I also got into Harvard, Brown, UPenn and Washington University in St. Louis,” Adeniji said. 

She's the latest standout success in a long line of triumphs for Amistad, a school U.S. News & World Report has ranked the best in Connecticut for a second straight year. 

The New Haven school serves primarily inner-city black and Latino students. 

“The whole purpose of our school is to look at our kids and our parents and say ‘College is for you,’” school principal, Morgan Barth, said. “You can get there. You will get there. You're going to get there. It's going to take a lot of hard work but you absolutely can do it."

Adeniji has been used to hard work from a young age. 

“I was the first of my family to be born in the United States,” said Adeniji, whose parents emigrated from Nigeria in 1999. “A large part of my childhood was seeing them study all the time. Yeah, my parents were always in the library or at home in their rooms studying." 

So Adeniji brought her work ethic from home and found her purpose at Amistad. 

“There are a lot of stereotypes and statistics for black women in America and women in America and black people in America,” Adeniji said. “So I work every day to actively fight against them. … There are people out there who do not have the opportunities that I do, that look like me and I want to make sure that I take advantage of whatever I can."

One person has died after a fire in Southington Saturday night, according to officials from the fire department. 

Firefighters were called to respond to 630 Prospect St. at 9:44 p.m. and fire officials said a resident died from injuries. 

The cause of the fire has not been determined. 

An investigation is underway.

A suspect involved in a standoff with Connecticut State Police in Southbury Monday is in custody, police confirmed. 

Troopers responded to a home on Purchase Brook Road around 2 a.m. for the report of a disturbance.

They made contact with a person in the home who refused to come out, according to state police. The person may have had a gun, police said.

After an hours-long standoff, police took the suspect into custody. He was unhurt, but evaluated by EMS as a precaution. The suspect has not been identified.

Several roads in the area were closed while troopers tried to resolve the situation.

No one was injured and there was no threat to the public, according to police.

Gas prices have been over $3 a gallon in Connecticut for more than a week and they continue to rise.

The average gas price in Connecticut is $3.11 per gallon in Connecticut, up 10 cents since May 11, and $2.93 nationwide, according to the AAA Allied Group. 

Gas prices have been rising after the president withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal and re-imposed sanctions and the average family will spend about $200 more on gas this summer than last, according to AAA.

Gas Buddy tracks the lowest gas prices in Connecticut, so you can find the least expensive gas in your area. Check here.

AAA also has a fuel price finder. 

The AAA website also has a gas calculator to help you determine how much it will cost to go where you are going. Check it here.

A Bridgeport man is accused of assaulting police in Milford police and hitting an officer in the face with a shirt that was covered in urine and feces.

Police intervened when two men got into an argument outside a Daniel Street restaurant in Milford on Saturday that turned into a fight. Police said one man tried to walk away, but 27-year-old Rafael Cruz, of Bridgeport, punched him in the face.

The victim did not want to pursue an arrest and Cruz would have been released after receiving an infraction for creating a public disturbance, but he tried to fight with officers, according to Milford police.

Police arrested him and said Cruz spit at officers while they were transporting him to headquarters, then continued to fight during the booking process, urinated in a cell and defecated on the sleeping bench.

After allowing time for Cruz to calm down, officers tried to process him again, but he hit an officer in the face with his shirt, which contained urine and feces, then continued to be combative with officers, police said.

Cruz was transported to the hospital for observation and was eventually processed.

Police said Cruz has less than half an ounce of marijuana on him and he was charged with creating a public disturbance, possession of less than half an ounce of marijuana, three counts of assault on police officer, two counts of criminal mischief in the fourth degree, second-degree breach of peace and interfering with an officer.

He was released on a $5,000 bond and is scheduled to appear in Milford Court on June 12.

A Boston man who is accused of stealing an ambulance from Rhode Island Hospital was stopped on Interstate 95 in Connecticut and arrested, according to state police.

Connecticut State Police said Rhode Island State Police called Troop E just after 6 a.m. and said they were following an ambulance that had been stolen from Rhode Island Hospital in Providence.

Rhode Island troopers followed the ambulance into Connecticut and Connecticut State police stopped the vehicle just before exit 92 in North Stonington and took he driver, 36-year-old Johnny Kimbrough, of Boston, into custody.

"Thankfully we have the rescue back. there doesn't appear to be any damage, no one was hurt and we've wrapped it up with an arrest," said Providence Police Major David LaPatin.

Police said Kimbrough asked for medical attention and was committed to Backus Hospital.

Kimbrough was charged with first-degree larceny of a motor vehicle. He is due in court on June 4.

Rhode Island officials are looking into how he was able to steal the vehicle in the first place.

"I'm looking to see why it happened, and to prevent it from happening in the future. this is a practice that's been going on for years. They leave the rescues running and it's unsafe," said Providence Public Safety Commissioner Steven Pare.

Cops in one Ohio town got an usual 911 call over the weekend. It was from a man who said he was walking home from an Amtrak station. 

And, according to the man, there was a pig following him. And he didn't know what to do about it. 

In a hilarious Facebook post early Saturday, cops said "night shift responded to the obviously drunk guy" who must have been "hallucinating" and found instead a "very sober male" walking east on Center Ridge in Elyria. He was, in fact, walking away from the Amtrak station, not from a bar, as they thought. 

"Oh, and he was being followed by a pig," the post said. "Yes, a pig." 

An officer managed to get the pig into his cruiser, where the animal was seen appearing to rest comfortably on the black leather seat. It was then taken to a secure location and returned to its owner hours later. 

The North Ridgeville Police Department also preempted any attempts to poke insensitive fun: "Also, we will mention the irony of the pig in a police car now so that anyone that thinks they’re funny is actually unoriginal and trying too hard. Have a great day."

Students in Wallingford’s Public School District went back to school Monday after missing three days last week because of the severe storm damage.

On Monday night, the Board of Education plans to discuss how to handle those missed days.

The district already had 183 school days built into the school year, three more than the state requires, according to Superintendent Salvatore Menzo. Menzo said he will be requesting the board forgive three days, so the last day of school and graduation can remain on June 22.

As life for students in Wallingford started to return to normal, many parents and homeowners were still cleaning up the mess mother nature left behind, including downed trees, utility lines, and damage to their homes and cars.

Other school districts such as Brookfield, Oxford, New Fairfield and Newtown were still closed Monday.

The superintendent of Brookfield Public Schools said he requested a waiver through the Connecticut Department of Education that would exclude the district from the required 180 school days.

UConn President Susan Herbst will step down next summer and she said she plans to return to the classroom as a political science professor at the UConn campus in Storrs. 

The university released a statement Monday morning saying that Herbst, who has led the university since 2011, will step down next summer when her current employment agreement ends. 

“Being able to lead this outstanding institution has been one of the great honors and privileges of my life,” she said in a message to the UConn community. “These have been exciting and rewarding years. UConn has continued to rise in the rankings and grow academically as we embarked on transformational new initiatives, formed vital partnerships, addressed long-standing needs, planned carefully for the future, and made difficult but necessary decisions." 

Herbst was the first woman to be president of UConn since the school was founded in 1881, according to a statement from UConn. She was named UConn’s 15th president on Dec 20, 2010. 

“Despite financial struggles because of the state budget, together we have become a stronger, better university,” she said. “UConn is among the finest research universities in the United States and the pride of the state of Connecticut, as it should be.” 

The board extended Herbst’s original five-year employment agreement in 2014 to run through July 1, 2019. 

She said in a letter to the UConn community that she will return to the classroom as a professor of political science at UConn's Stamford campus.

“Stepping down was not an easy decision for me by any means,” Herbst said in a statement. “But a university is forever and each of us knows that we are only its temporary caretakers and champions. None of us are indispensable and the right time for a change always arrives eventually.” 

UConn Board Chairman Thomas Kruger said he will appoint a committee this summer to start a national search for the next president. 

Sleeping Giant State Park in Hamden could be closed until the fall because of massive storm damage, according to the Sleeping Giant Park Association.

Four tornadoes, a macroburst and a microburst struck Connecticut on Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service. When a tornado in New Haven County lifted, a powerful swath of damaging winds continued from Sleeping Giant State Park to Wharton Brook State Park in North Haven and then into Wallingford and Northford. 

Sleeping Giant State Park has been closed since last week and the Sleeping Giant Park Association said all of the trails are closed to the public and are not expected to reopen until the fall.

“Even professional construction concerns brought in to consult are shaking their heads at the absolutely overwhelming task of cleaning up JUST the picnic and parking areas, and the Tower Path,” a posted on the Facebook page for the Sleeping Giant Park Association says.

The state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection has warned people to stay away from the state parks that are closed. Crews from DEEP said they have not made a determination on when the park will reopen. 

In a news release on Monday afternoon, DEEP said Sleeping Giant and Wharton Brook will remain closed through the holiday weekend and no determination has been made on when the two parks will reopen. 

DEEP will decide by the end of the day Tuesday on the status of Kettletown State Park for Memorial Day weekend.

A Shelton High School student was arrested Monday after she was found with a BB gun that looked like a semi-automatic handgun, according to police. 

Police investigated after students told school administrators that 18-year-old Destiny Ryan was showing what appeared to be a semi-automatic handgun in the girl’s bathroom, according to police. 

Shelton officers and detectives, who were already at the scene for an unrelated matter, approached Ryan and asked her if she had a gun and she said she did, according to police. 

Ryan then handed officers her book bag and inside was a black loaded BB gun that “closely resembled a 9mm semi-automatic handgun,” police said. 

Ryan was arrested and charged with possession of a weapon on school grounds and breach of peace in the second degree. 

She was released on a $2,500 bond and is due in Derby Superior Court on June 4. 

Complaints filed about CT Transit in 2017 have raised concerns including bus drivers running red lights, cutting off other drivers, driving away from people who were trying to board or offering poor customer service.

The NBC Connecticut Troubleshooters obtained hundreds of pages of complaints filed by people who are not satisfied with service they received from CT Transit, the Connecticut Department of Transportation-owned bus service.

The DOT received the complaints from the Hartford, Bristol and New Britain areas between Jan. 1, 2017 and Dec. 15, 2017.

NBC Connecticut also obtained on-board surveillance video from many of the incidents in question.

In a complaint filed on Oct. 26, 2017, an on-duty CT Transit driver admitted to his employers that he had urinated in some bushes after parking his bus on Lydall Street in Manchester. Managers informed the driver that urinating is not allowed on the bus or in public.

In the video surveillance accompanying the complaint, the driver can be seen exiting his bus, walking to the bushes along the road and apparently relieving himself.

“That is not allowable in our policy,” Cole Pouliot, general manager for CT Transit, said about the urination incident.

“You're not allowed to pull over on the side of the road and urinate on private property,” he said. “He was counseled and we followed up with aggressive discipline to make sure it doesn't happen again.”

Another complaint filed on Nov. 29, 2017 and accompanying video concerned a bus driver who had become frustrated behind the wheel while on Main Street in Hartford.

Video showed the driver forming his hands into the shape of a gun as if to aim and shoot at a woman who had pulled her car into his bus lane. According to the complaint, the driver was "immediately corrected in accordance with company policy."

“It's distressing to see that and we followed up with him and I don't expect that driver doing anything like that again,” Pouliot said of the incident. “To my knowledge, he is still driving.”

A complaint filed on Sept. 18, 2017 concerned a bus operator who had received his bus late from the previous operator and continued to fall further behind schedule. Still, the video surveillance footage shows that the driver decided to stop at McDonald’s and returned to his bus with a bag of food and drink.

“The operator should have been checking in with the dispatcher and asking permission for things like that,” Pouliot said of the non-sanctioned lunch break.

“People remember that,” he said. “In fact, they called it in because they did recognize it.”

According to that same complaint, the operator drove over a railroad crossing improperly in order to make up time. Bus drivers are required to stop and make sure no trains are coming before proceeding across railroad tracks.

Pouliot said the number of complaints seems ‘appropriate’ based on the scope of what CT Transit does.

“We put almost 16 million miles on the street with all of our buses and moved about 26 million people last year,” he said. “Nobody likes when something bad like this happens, but I do take a lot of pride in the way we respond to the issues.”

“The feedback that we receive is less than 1 percent of the total amount of service that we put out there, so we definitely viewed these things as isolated incidents more than patterns of normal behavior,” Pouliot said.

“We've had a lot of good experiences, but this was just not one of them,” said Joe Duggan, of Newington. He said his bus driver decided mid-ride that the ride was suddenly over. “Folks kind of walked by and questioned him and his answer was ‘Everybody off.’”

Duggan, who said he is a supporter of public transportation and of CT Transit, filed a complaint in February 2017 about a driver who told all passengers, including an older man with a cane, to “get off” and “get the next bus.”

Ryan Leahy said he, his wife and three little kids were on a CTfastrak bus heading from Newington to Hartford to catch a baseball game on July 2, 2017 when he witnessed an incident.

“It was a smooth ride up until the point we got into Hartford, around Bushnell Park,” said Leahy who reported seeing a young man's bike being stolen right off the rack on the back of the bus. Then, according to the complaint filed with CT Transit, an altercation between several teens began unfolding right in front of his kids.

“I'll ride it myself again, but I don't think we'll take the family on again," Leahy said.

Pouliot said he wanted Leahy and his family to feel safe on board.

“I would encourage him to give us another shot because that is certainly not the experience that the majority of our customers have happen,” Pouliot said.

“I'll certainly be looking at some of the patterns of things that have happened and find if there’s not ways that we can intercept some of these bad behaviors to make sure they don't occur all over again," Pouliot said.

Among the feedback and complaints DOT received, riders also praised CT Transit’s service and commended drivers who went above and beyond to offer good customer service.

Five students from Hamden High School were transported to the hospital after eating 'marijuana cookies,' police said, and they have arrested a 15-year-old girl.

The five students appeared to be under the influence of drugs and were sent to the school nurse, according to police

Then they were brought to Yale-New Haven Hospital as a precaution, according to school officials.

Officers investigated and said they learned a 15-year-old girl had brought the cookies to school and the students ate them before becoming ill. 

The teen has been charged with five counts of risk of injury to a minor and is scheduled to appear in juvenile court in New Haven.

Monday was the first day back to school since last Tuesday when strong storms caused extensive damage. 

Police are still investigating.

Authorities have identified remains found after a police standoff and fiery explosion on Quinnipiac Avenue in North Haven earlier this month that injured 10 police officers.

The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner identified remains found at the scene as 60-year-old John Sayre, who lived at 385 Quinnipiac Ave., the home at the center of the investigation. Sayre's cause of death was determined to be "explosive and thermal injuries." The method is undetermined.

The incident began as a domestic violence situation on the afternoon of May 2, according to police, when a woman contacted police and authorities responded to the home.

Connecticut State Police Sgt. Marc Gelvin said the man inside the home refused to communicate with police and barricaded himself inside.

The South Central Regional SWAT team was called in and while they were clearing the outside of the home, there was an explosion from a barn on the property around 8:30 p.m.

North Haven police said that 10 team members officers from the tactical team were injured and nine were taken to Yale-New Haven Hospital.

Public records show that Sayre, who lived at the home, was going through a divorce that the wife filed for on April 18.

The standoff caused chaos in the area as neighbors were asked to shelter-in-place and immediate neighbors were evacuated.