Central Maine Power Company has more than 260 line crews in the field Thursday working to complete restoration to customers who lost service from this week’s snow and wind storm.
At 1:30 p.m. Thursday, fewer than 1,000 customers remained without service, down from a peak of 84,000 Monday morning. An estimated 166,000 customers across all 14 counties CMP serves lost power at some point during the storm.
Joining the line crews are more than 100 tree crews and hundreds of additional people who have been working on the storm recovery this week.
The remaining outages in Hancock, Knox, Lincoln, Penobscot, and Waldo Counties affect very small customer groups, seasonal homes, islands, hard-to-reach locations, and single customer service cables. CMP expects to have these outages restored by late Thursday evening.
“This is the most difficult and labor-intensive stage of storm recovery,” said CMP spokeswoman Gail Rice. “Each repair brings back fewer and fewer customers. And with many crews working on each circuit, extra care needs to be taken before energizing each line segment to ensure worker safety. We appreciate customers’ patience and understanding as we work through this final stage of storm recovery.”
The utility is working to keep customers informed of restoration progress. Customers can find information on CMP’s mobile-friendly web site at www.cmpco.com.
Customers can also call CMP’s automated outage line at 800-696-1000 if they want information on restoration progress in specific areas. The utility’s staff is working to update recordings with the latest restoration information.
A storm packing heavy, wet snow and strong winds moved into Maine Sunday, Nov. 2, and the first outage reports came in to CMP at around midday. Storm conditions lingered into Sunday night, and the number of outages reached a peak of 84,000 just before 8 a.m. Monday.
Damage was particularly severe in Lincoln, Knox, Waldo, and Hancock Counties in Maine’s Midcoast region, where up to a 1 1/2 feet of snow fell in some areas. Trees and limbs came down onto power lines, breaking more than 170 utility poles and bringing down hundreds of sections of wire.
Snow-coated roads made travel conditions hazardous and combined with storm debris to keep crews from accessing many of the damaged areas. Persistent moderate winds caused new outages on Monday as crews worked to assess damage and restore service to major distribution lines.
Despite the challenges, the outage count had dropped to fewer than 50,000 accounts late Monday evening. Crews made excellent progress Tuesday, reducing outages to fewer than 19,000 customers by late evening.
There was additional progress Wednesday, and by midnight, service was back to more than 95 percent of customers affected by Sunday’s storm.
