Storm recovery update: Job about half done for CMP, Emera Maine doing slightly better

Courtesy / CMP By 9 p.m. Tuesday CMP reported it had restored power to more than 160,000 customers and that its recovery workforce totaled 1,800 people, with 800 being added on Tuesday.

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By Staff

From a peak of almost 500,000 Mainers being without power following the Oct. 30 storm, Maine’s two utilities are reporting they're about half done with restoration efforts, but acknowledge that full restoration of power to all of their customers could extend into the weekend.

At 10:40 a.m. today, CMP reported 226,186 of its customers were still without power, a little more than half of the 404,000 customers reported at the peak of the outages midday Monday. Emera Maine reported 40,729 customers still without power, also at 10:40 a.m., which puts its restoration efforts at better than 50% completed based on the peak outage tally of roughly 90,000 customers reported Monday.

CMP reported that by 9 p.m. Tuesday it had restored power to more than 160,000 customers and that its recovery workforce totaled 1,800 people, with 800 being added on Tuesday.

Slow but steady progress

“Crews have made tremendous progress so far today, and that will continue through the night and into Wednesday,” CMP President and CEO Sara Burns said in a news release. “Most important is that we’ve accomplished this without a single safety incident or injury.”

CMP stated its crews “will work around the clock to continue to bring more customers on line, with the majority to have service back by late Saturday. The only exceptions could be homes on remote camp lines and in areas where flooding or downed trees prevent access.”

Emera Maine issued this statement: “From the peak of the storm, we have restored 50% of all Emera Maine customers. Work continues on our distribution system today, with the majority of our crews focused on the areas of highest damage.

“In Washington and Aroostook counties, we expect to restore almost all remaining customers by end of day today.

“In Northern Penobscot and Piscataquis (Milo to Lincoln to Millinocket and Dover/Sebec) we expect to restore 90% of customers by 10 p.m. Thursday, with almost all remaining customers restored by end of day Friday.

“In southern Penobscot (Greater Bangor, Orono/Old Town) and Hancock County, which are the areas that experienced the most damage, we expect to restore 90% of customers by 10 p.m. Friday, with almost all remaining customers restored by end of day Saturday.

For additional information CMP’s restoration efforts, including a town-by-town listing of outages in the CMP service area with an area map, go here. For Emera Maine’s updates go here.