Friday storm impacts KLPD customers

KENNEBUNK – About 2,000 of Kennebunk Light and Power District customers were in the dark at the same time Friday night after an ice storm, followed by rain, wind and snow – which then turned to ice  –  played havoc with power lines.

A 30-foot long, 12 inch diameter limb rests on the ground after falling on a cabin in Arundel Friday night. Fortunately, there was little structural damage. Kevin A. Byron photo

KLPD General Manager Todd Shea said the first outages started to come in at about 3 p.m. on Friday.

Tree limbs fell on primary lines, transformers blew, and the tops of three to four utility poles snapped, said Shea.

KLPD has 7,500 meters, or customer accounts.

Most power was restored early Saturday morning. Shea said the crews were then sent home to rest and returned to work at 10 a.m. The remaining dozen or so customers had their electricity restored by Saturday afternoon.

The first area to experience power loss was in the Cole and Middle road area of West Kennebunk; Shea estimated power was restored there within 2 to 3 hours.

But there was much more to come. Downtown Kennebunk, including Route 1, and Fletcher Street, Ross Road, Summer Street, Sea Road and others, and the western part of Arundel, all experienced outages, he said.

Shea said it was his understanding that Kennebunk and Wells got the worst of the Friday storm. He said it was the heaviest outage during his five-year tenure at the utility.

Shea said the district has been doing some aggressive trimming of tree limbs, which he said helps keep power lines free from debris that can cause outages.

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