Thousands of Mainers still without electricity
Mar 01 - Portland Press Herald
More than 1,000 utility line and support workers fanned out across Maine
on Saturday and restored power to tens of thousands of customers, but
more than 42,000 remained in the dark Saturday night.
"We've got a lot of help," said John Carroll, a spokesman for Central
Maine Power Co., noting that crews from as far away as Michigan,
Missouri and Florida arrived in the wake of a powerful storm that socked
the region with heavy snow, rain and hurricane- force winds. Workers
also came from Massachusetts and New York, he said.
Carroll said the utility found 184 poles snapped, and repairing them
requires the most work. The snapped poles need to be removed, new poles
put in place, power lines restrung and then the flow of electricity
restored. About two-thirds of the poles that were snapped were replaced
as of Saturday afternoon, he said.
The largest number of Mainers without power was in York County, Carroll
said, followed by Cumberland, Lincoln and Sagadahoc. Some customers in
those counties may not be connected until Monday or Tuesday, he said,
especially those in isolated areas with individual outages.
Utility crews work first on lines that can get a large number
of customers reconnected, then move to smaller groups of customers and
finally individual buildings.
The highest wind gust reported from the storm was 91 mph off the coast
of Portsmouth, N.H. - well above hurricane force of 74 mph. More than 1
million customers across the Northeast lost power, and more than half of
them were still without electricity as of Saturday afternoon.
New Hampshire's electrical grid was the hardest hit, with about 180,000
customers still without power Saturday night, down from over 330,000
Friday.
Two people in Candia, N.H., died in a house fire caused by improperly
using a propane heater to stay warm, fire officials said.
In Maine, Carroll said CMP is dealing with two different situations: the
coastal area, where wind and heavy rain led to trees toppling over and
pulling down lines, and inland, where heavy, wet snow tended to snap
branches, which then fell on the lines.
"Along the coast, it's one big mess you're trying to clean up and
inland, it's a series of problems," he said. "If a limb comes down, it
might hang on the line and short it out, but when a tree comes down,
it's pretty destructive."
Carroll noted that relatively mild weather and only light snow and rain
showers allowed crews to make significant progress Saturday.
Officials in York County said damage there, particularly in York and
Wells, might be significant enough to warrant a request for a federal
disaster declaration.
Rick Davis, a spokesman for the York County Emergency Management Agency,
said a final decision on that will have to wait until later this week,
when cities and towns turn in forms detailing costs related to the
storm. If a declaration is made, cities and towns may be eligible for
federal reimbursement of some of the costs.
Davis said only a handful of roads remained closed and most of them were
smaller back roads. At the peak of the storm and high tide Friday
morning, more than 150 roads were closed, he said.
In York, 70-year-old lobsterman Pat White was able to use his generator
to help cook a pancake breakfast Saturday to feed his neighbors - a
father, his daughter and her baby - who were without power. White and
his wife, Enid, also were planning what to serve them for dinner.
"We've got to use up some of the stuff in the refrigerator," he said.
Nick Vermette, 49, a Central Maine Power safety specialist who was
supervising line crews Saturday, said the 17-hour days are exhausting.
"By the time you drive home, take a shower, try to get to sleep, get up
and come back, you're averaging four to five hours sleep," he said.
Staff Writer Edward D. Murphy can be contacted at 791-6465 or at:
emurphy@pressherald.com
Originally published by By EDWARD D. MURPHY Staff Writer The Associated
Press contributed to this report..
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