Governor John Baldacci and Maine Emergency Management Agency Director Rob McAleer visited the Wiscasset Community Center to survey the power outage situation here in Lincoln County on Sunday night. A handful of families staying at the Center were eating dinner and watching football on a widescreen T.V., waiting to hear whether or not their homes have power.
“We lost power Thursday (Dec. 11), but came to the shelter last night,” said Wiscasset resident David Shull. “We tried to get by for one night,” he continued, then gestured toward his eight and a half month-old daughter, “but without power we had to come here.”
According to McAleer, less than 68,000 Central Maine Power accounts in the state remain without power, as of about 5 p.m. Sunday. Roughly 70 percent of C.M.P. accounts have been restored.
In Lincoln County, 5000 citizens were without power as of 4 p.m. Sunday versus 12,800 Saturday morning, according to Lincoln County Emergency Management Agency Deputy Director Kimberley Kaiser. Kaiser said areas in Lincoln County hardest hit by the power loss have been Wiscasset, Westport, Alna, Jefferson, Nobleboro, Bristol, South Bristol and Bremen.
McAleer said that the most affected areas across the state were in Alfred, Brunswick and Portland. Additional crews from New York, Pennsylvania and Quebec arrived to help in the power restoration.
McAleer said that C.M.P. had 500 line workers, 160 crews and 13 pole-setting crews on task. He added that there are 100 broken poles. He said that by midnight Sunday, they expected to restore power to 25 more towns in the northern and inland regions of Maine.
The governor expressed his appreciation for the work of first responders during this power emergency.
“They know where people live and what’s going on,” Baldacci said. “The community response is so vital to the success of this operation.
According to Kaiser, nearly 700 volunteers answered the call for help. People in Lincoln County Communications, County staff, all first responders, Red Cross, businesses and individual citizens lent a hand.
Kaiser also wrote that an estimated 450 people utilized the two overnight and seven warming shelters in the county.