Central Maine Power Company (CMP) President Sara Burns has set a goal to complete power restoration from last week’s storm but have been hindered by this morning’s high winds and increasing outages once again.
Reportedly as of early this morning, in Lincoln County, there are still 1508 customers without power.
“We have set a goal to restore power by late Monday to all the homes and businesses affected by last week’s storm,” she said, but CMP also said the new round of bad weather could slow the restoration work as roads get slippery, fresh snow covers damaged equipment, and travel becomes more difficult.
“Crews will be working to meet our goal to get everyone back on by tonight, although, working in these conditions will make that more difficult,” said CMP spokesman John Carroll. “Travel will be slow, and we hope drivers will take extra care as they pass crews working on the roadside.”
Power had already been restored to more than 100,000 customers since the outages peaked at 133,000 on Friday morning, however new snow and slippery roads contributed to new outages in many areas.
The utility continues to bring more utility crews into Maine to reinforce the more than 1000 people that have been working in the field and in CMP offices on storm repair.
Some of the fieldwork has been challenging, according to CMP spokesperson Gail Rice.
“We’ve had more than 240 broken poles from this storm, far exceeding what we experienced in the winter storm of February 2009 and even the ice storm of December 2008,” she says. “Some of those poles need to be reset in ledge, which requires special equipment. It’s a labor-intensive and time-consuming process.”