A Central Maine Power crew works to restore power on Gray Road in Cumberland on Saturday. Bonnie Washuk/Staff Writer
The number of customers without electricity in Maine fell to just over 500 by Sunday afternoon, six days after a fierce wind and rain storm knocked out power to about 500,000 customers.
By 4 p.m. Sunday, 512 customers of Central Maine Power, mostly in Oxford and Androscoggin counties, were still in the dark. Versant Power reported 71 customers, primarily in Penobscot County, were without power.
In Oxford County, Hebron had the most outages, affecting 232 customers of 581 total.
In Cumberland County, crews restored power to all residents on Saturday.
On Gray Road in Cumberland, Todd Hatch was working in a crew of CMP linemen Saturday morning.
Todd Hatch, of North Yarmouth, said he and other linemen have worked 17-hour days since Monday’s storm. He was part of a CMP crew working to restore power along Gray Road in Cumberland on Saturday. Bonnie Washuk/Staff Writer
While his colleagues were up in two buckets above the CMP trucks, Hatch was on the ground, tired but still smiling.
The recovery work “is going good so far,” he said. “We’re getting to the end of it.”
Since Monday’s storm, linemen have been working long days, and hundreds have come from out of state to assist.
“We’re working 17 hours a day, seven hours off to rest, until it’s done,” Hatch said two days before Christmas. “We’re trying to get everyone’s power restored as best we can.” Once that happens, he said, crews can go home.
CMP spokesman Jonathan Breed said Saturday he expected nearly all customers would have power by Saturday night.
“We remain confident that we will have the vast majority of our customers back on by tonight,” he said in a statement. “The communities we are working in today were hardest hit, and I would describe our crew’s activities as rebuilding rather than restoring. That said, we have work plans in place for all our remaining customers, and we are executing (Saturday).”
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.