BATH

While many Bath residents remained without power Tuesday, businesses, nonprofits and neighbors stepped up to help each other throughout widespread outages.

According to Central Maine Power’s website, as of Tuesday evening 3,206 of 4,960 customers in Bath remained without power. In towns around Bath, including Arrowsic, Georgetown and Phippsburg, power remains out for virtually all CMP customers, according to their website.

While many businesses remain without power, some in the downtown area have gotten power back since the storm, or in some cases never lost it.

“It’s really split down (Front Street). It’s an interesting phenomenon that happens in downtown where the west side of the street generally keeps power,” explained Mari Eosco, City Council chairwoman and interim director of Main Street Bath. “So those businesses are doing fine.”

Bath Iron Works ultimately canceled all shifts Monday morning. Power outages affected the shipyard’s facilities in Brunswick and east Bath, making work impossible. While the main yard kept power throughout the storm, it was ultimately closed in the morning for safety reasons.

“The decision was made to cancel the main yard. I mean, the wind was really howling and it was pretty ugly,” said BIW spokesman David Hench. “We couldn’t have employees working out in that. It would not be safe.”

While some facilities were still closed Tuesday morning, all shifts were back on schedule by Tuesday afternoon.

RSU 1 canceled school throughout the district Monday and Tuesday due to a lack of power. The district announced Tuesday evening in a statement that all schools would be closed for Wednesday as well.

“Due to the continuing power outages and travel conditions, there will be no school in RSU 1 tomorrow,” said RSU 1 in a statement. “At this time there are still four RSU 1 schools without power. We will continue to monitor the situation and hope to return to school as soon as can be done safely.”

“A lot of people are looking for places to go with their children because school has been canceled for two days. So I’ve seen a lot of people at Maxwell’s and the coffee shops and places like that,” said Eosco. “It’s been tricky.”

One place that has opened its doors to families and individuals in need of hot showers, power or just a place to spend a few hours is the Bath Area Family YMCA. The Landing Y, a branch of the Bath Y at Brunswick Landing, has similarly opened its doors. Both facilities currently have power.

“We opened up for the community at both the Landing Y and Brunswick Landing and the Bath facility … for the community to take showers and use our power to charge their equipment and everything,” said Executive Director Sabrina Murphy. “People are bringing in their laptops and their phones and charging, and it’s kind of a fun, active space to be right now.”

As of Tuesday afternoon, Murphy said that 50 people had gone to the Landing Y to shower, and 130 had taken advantage of the utilities at the Bath Y.

“We’re very fortunate that we didn’t lose power (at the Bath facility),” added Murphy. “Everybody’s in a good mood here because they can come take a hot shower.”

The Bath Youth Meetinghouse & Skatepark is also open in the afternoons as a place for students to spend time and charge their phones, according to their Facebook page.

Due to the lack of power on many streets in Bath and concerns over safety, the city decided to move Halloween trick or treating to Friday, with the hope that power will be restored by then.

“It was a call on the city’s part to make sure that people are safe because some of the streets are so dark to drive down,” said Eosco. “Hopefully, everything will be back to normal by Friday.”

As the city clears debris and waits for CMP to restore power to all Bath residents, Eosco emphasized that the community must continue to work together to ensure that needs are being met throughout the outage.

“We all need to be working together trying to get communication across,” she said. “Neighbors are really helping out other neighbors by allowing them to charge their phones, use their showers. I think this is really what makes our community so strong, when we’re working together like this.”

nstrout@timesrecord.com

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