ROME, Maine — After five days, Central Maine Power (CMP) crews and additional line workers are wrapping up their restoration efforts as they revisit hard-to-reach places.
"Some of these towns have more than one hundred trees on the ground. Some trees are so big they don't fit in our equipment to chop them up, so we have to bring in specialized equipment," CMP Spokesperson Jon Breed said.
Friday, a crew from upstate New York made their way to the Bethel Lakes region to concentrate on the damage in backroads and more rural areas.
"You have like all of the stuff in the country here, where you're gonna have to come into the woods and have to climb, and do a lot of manual stuff," David Androsko said.
Earlier this week, crews mentioned the difficulties restoring power to these spots were due to excessive flooding.
"It's been tough. You know you've got a lot of these people, about three hundred thousand people out of power, so we divide and concur," Androsko added.
With more than 1,500 additional line crews assisting CMP according to its website, workers hope to have close to the 20,000 without power back online by the end of the day and the vast majority by Saturday evening.
With many crews leaving families back home, this time of year can be tough, however to no surprise, community members have given them a Maine welcome.
"Working in the community is just fabulous. I mean we have people that drive by and just thank us...they cheer us on," Supervisor Eric Corey said.
Although from away, both Corey and Androsko said the terrain and temperatures working outdoors in Maine are very reminiscent of upstate New York, leaving many out-of-state crews prepared to handle the unexpected.
"You never know what time of year you're gonna get. This could have been snow, freezing rain, but we're prepared for it," Corey added. "We know the weather patterns; we know the times of years we're going to be gone."