Contractors are hard to come by amid the mounting demand to repair damage from January storms that battered the coast. Now, many are patching their own wharves, hoping they can hold out until the real work can be done.

As more outages occur because of bad weather, a federal grant may help the grid better contain disruptions.

The National Weather Service said winds gusted up to 50 mph on Friday, but that sunnier, drier weather is on the way over the weekend and into next week.

A two-day nor'easter that brought strong winds and heavy snow Wednesday and Thursday knocked out power for almost 400,000 CMP and Versant customers.

Columbia University public health researchers found that the typical Maine customer went without power for longer than average between 2018 and 2020.