MAINE, Maine — Some Mainers woke up to a Thanksgiving Day surprise they weren't expecting.
Maine's overnight weather caused thousands of CMP and Emera Maine customers to be without power Thursday morning. At the peak, nearly 25,000 Maine customers were without power. By Thursday evening, the outages had been cut to nearly 8,000.
Central Maine Power outages were mostly concentrated in Franklin and Somerset counties while Emera Maine's outages are concentrated in Penobscot County.
"We understand that customers are sensitive to losing power on Thanksgiving and it's an important day..a lot of people are doing a lot of cooking and hosting family... we hope that people make good choices today in terms of travel," says Judy Long, the spokesperson from Emera.
"There are some poor travel conditions and that if affecting us as well we have crews staged throughout the area to make sure that they are close to the action when there are outages reported," said Judy Long.
Central Maine Power said they dispatched 70 crews state wide to tackle the holiday storm. CMP said 50 of the contracted crews came from Canada.
“Our crews and contractors are working with municipal road maintenance staff and Emergency Management officials to identify priorities for plowing and downed wire and debris clearing,” said Kevin Elwell, director, Electric Distribution for CMP in a press release Thursday afternoon. “We understand the demands of the holiday and ask customers to stay clear of work zones and allow our line crews to focus on getting power restored safely and as quickly as possible.”
CMP said there is still some damage assessment taking place. Officials warn some Mainers might not see power until Friday.
Both CMP and Emera Maine say they have dispatched crews to clear up the outages as quickly as possible.