High winds knocked out power to tens of thousands of Mainers on Monday, but most had their electricity back by evening.

As of 10 p.m. more than 7,700 CMP customers, most in Kennebec and York counties, were still without power. Versant Power, which serves northern and Down East Maine, reported just over 900 outages. By midnight, CMP was reporting 1,157 outages and Versant Power was reporting 491.

Wind gusts up to 55 mph were recorded Monday, according to the National Weather Service in Gray.

In a statement Monday evening, CMP said it restored electricity to more than 55,000 customers who lost power during heavy, sustained winds throughout the day. Wind gusts averaged 40-45 mph in most areas, CMP said.  The utility said it anticipates that the vast majority of customers will have power restored by Tuesday.

“We made strong progress today under difficult conditions and will continue those efforts into tonight and tomorrow until power has been restored to all customers,” said Kerri Theriault, CMP’s director of electric operations. “In addition to the more than 400 line and tree workers we had responding today, our sister AVANGRID utilities in New York and Connecticut have sent approximately 100 more line workers to assist with our response.”

Wind storms can create dangerous conditions for line workers, who are limited in their ability to go up in buckets to repair power lines.

« Previous

Man pleads not guilty to federal charges in alleged pizza dough tampering

Next »

Proposed ballot initiative to block non-citizens from voting falls short