UPDATED 8:35 p.m. – Power has been restored to all the customers in southern Maine who lost it earlier this evening, Central Maine Power Co. is reporting.

The company said that, as of about 8 p.m., all of the nearly 20,000 who lost power around 5:30 p.m. had their lights back on. The company said it re-routed electricity to the customers around two damaged transmission lines.

The problem was ultimately determined to be broken cross arm that carried the two lines, a spokeswoman for CMP said. That broken equipment will likely be replaced Saturday, she said.

UPDATED 7 p.m. — Power has been restored to all but about 2,300 customers, in Freeport, Yarmouth, North Yarmouth, Pownal and Durham.

A Central Maine Power Co. spokeswoman said officials have still not determined what caused two transmission lines to fail, cutting power to nearly 20,000 people in more than a dozen towns in southern Maine.

She said those lines are still off, but CMP has restored power to many customers by re-routing the electricity.

Crews plan to survey the lines from a helicopter, the spokeswoman said, most likely Saturday, to see if they can find where and why the lines failed. She also said crews are trying to re-route the power to those still without electricity, but she had no timetable on when that might occur.

UPDATED 6:15 p.m.

Central Maine Power Co. said nearly 20,000 people have lost power in a wide swath of southern Maine and the company is still trying to determine the cause.

The company said two transmission lines lost power at about 5:30 p.m. Towns affected include Cumberland, Yarmouth, North Yarmouth, Pownal, Freeport, Durham, Gray, Brunswick, New Gloucester, Raymond, Windham, Falmouth, Chebeague Island and Long Island.

A spokeswoman said the company has not determined the problem and could offer no estimate on when power will be restored.

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