ALFRED, Maine — 5PM UPDATE
Central Maine Power says they are down to approximately 70,000 customer outages from a high of 219,000 totally impacted.
“We know and can appreciate that customers are eager to have more information about when their power will be restored so they can plan,” said Kevin Elwell, director of Electric Operations for CMP. “Given our progress today on ongoing damage assessment and restoration work, we can at least provide the day that we expect the various counties to be restored.”
CMP provided county by county power restoration power estimates, but they cautioned, "The company provides this information with a caution that there may be individual or more challenging repair situations that could fall outside the listed timeframe. CMP will also offer revised, more specific restoration times as progress is made." Here are the estimated times:
- Androscoggin - Saturday
- Cumberland - Monday
- Franklin - Sunday
- Hancock - Complete
- Kennebec - Saturday
- Knox - Sunday
- Lincoln - Monday
- Oxford - Sunday
- Penobscot - Sunday
- Piscataquis - Complete
- Sagadahoc - Monday
- Somerset - Saturday
- Waldo - Sunday
- York - Saturday
Emera Maine said they have restored power to approximately 85% of their customers that were impacted by the storm.
A press release from Emera said, "Additional crews have been brought in to Washington and Hancock counties to continue restoration efforts in the hardest-hit areas of Emera Maine's service territory and will continue to work until all customers' service is restored."
CMP says they 550 field crews – CMP workers, contractors and from other AVANGRID companies – and 120 tree crews in the field as well. Emera says they have additional out-of-state trucks helping them in their impacted areas.
ORIGINAL
Central Maine Power says, between its own staff and contractors, it has 450 crews working hard Friday to restore power to nearly 100,000 of its customers still in dark after Thursday’s strong nor'easter.
As of 10:30 a.m., Friday, October 18., 95,861 CMP customers are without electricity and 13,366 Emera Maine customers are without power.
CMP officials say they have deployed 100 of their crews to the hardest-hit areas to work on repairs and restoration. They have also contracted 350 outside crews to help Mainers get their power back as soon as possible.
As of Thursday evening, CMP says it has completed 60 percent of the storm damage assessment it needs to do before it can give a clear picture of the restoration timeline. CMP hopes to be 100 percent done with its assessment by Friday night.
Once the assessment is complete, CMP says it will provide an update to its customers.
CMP says this storm has uprooted some big trees that are outside of its 5-year tree-clearing cycle areas.
The power company says it cannot restore power until it removes the big fallen trees, and repairs the poles that are damaged.
As of Friday, CMP says 110 poles are broken and need to be repaired.
Some of the hard-hit areas include the towns of Bridgton, Fairfield, Cape Elizabeth, and Portland. Officials say it's very unusual to have this level of damage in the Portland area.
Sagadahoc, York, and Cumberland counties also experienced heavy storm damage, and power restoration might take some time.
The CMP president says the company is working hard to develop a more robust infrastructure system, to help its customers avoid these major power outages in the future. He also says installing heavier wires will help.