Saturday Updates [3:38 p.m.]: Lincoln Middle School Shelter will Close Saturday

Outage numbers have dropped sharply in Meriden Saturday, dipping to 11 percent at 3:38 p.m. from 41 percent without power on Friday morning.

Patch was at the city's Emergency Operations Center as department heads ran their Saturday 2 p.m. state of the city meeting. Here are some updates garnered from the meeting and afterwards:

• The City will close Lincoln Middle School as a shelter Saturday at 4 p.m. The Senior Center will remain open as the city's only shelter. Last night 32 people stayed at Lincoln Middle School, 21 stayed at the Senior Center.
• CL&P liasions in the EOC are reporting that South Broad Street and Sam's Road should get power tonight.
• Major areas still out on Saturday include Old Colony to Stagecoach and Gypsy Lane to Wallingford, according to City Manager Lawrence Kendzior.
• There were two outage-related fires overnight. One was caused when power was restored to a home in which an iron was plugged in, in another, the furnace caught fire in a home when the power was turned on, according to Fire Chief James Trainor.
• Three residences and 1 business were burglarized Friday, and police caught one attempted burglar overnight Friday night. Meriden Police Chief Jeffry Cossette said officers were searching for a woman in a graveyard with night-vision glasses, heard a crash and were able to see someone attempting to break into a home.
• The city has given out about 5,000 MRE's to residents since Thursday. It has sheltered close to 600 people, according to Acting Health Director Lisa Pippa. MRE's and bottled water are still being distributed at 55 Michael Drive in Meriden from 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. Sat. and Sun. Residents are now receiving 4 MRE's for each person in their family, up from two. Residents need to show ID to receive an MRE.
• Meriden's Bradley-Hubbard Pump Station just came online, that leaves two water facilities, Parker Ave. Pump Station and Cedarwood Sewer Pump Station, still on generator power.
  
• The Salvation Army, 23 St. Casimir Drive, will be serving hot meals in their soup kitchen on Sunday, 12-2pm.
• The traffic light at West Main St. and Lewis Ave. is back on.
• As of 1:30 p.m. Sat., the four snapped poles on Old Colony Rd. had been fixed.