CMP says remaining customers without power should see estimated restoration times by tonight - WGME
CMP says remaining customers without power should see estimated restoration times by Wednesday night | WGME
Check the list for closings, delays, and parking bans.
AUGUSTA (WGME) -- With tens of thousands of Mainers still in dark after Monday's storm, the big question is when the power will be restored.
According to Central Maine Power, the majority of customers without power should see an ETR, or Estimated Time of Restoration, by Wednesday night on its website.
"The assessing period, we are moving past that now and that is wrapping up," CMP spokesperson Jon Breed said. "We still have a lot more damage assessment to do, but we can now start to give customers realistic restoration times for the coming days."
When you look at your street on CMP's outage list, the right-hand side will either give you an estimated restoration date and time or say the word "assessing."
The utility says a lot goes into giving an estimated time of restoration, which is why many customers may have seen "assessing" for a couple of days.
"We need to understand the scope of damage so we can then assign work to crews and bring in materials to make those repairs," Breed said. "Sometimes it is as quick as removing a branch, but other times, we need to dig holes, set poles and make massive repairs to entire neighborhoods."
The utility says it's found at least 3,000 individual instances of damage so far. That includes everything from fallen trees on wires, blown transformers or flooded substations.
Five-hundred of those have been addressed so far, meaning there are still about 2,500 to go.
Working to address and fix that damage are 1,400 line and tree crews, some of whom have come from as far away a Ohio and Canada.
"Our restoration effort now exceeds that of the 1998 ice storm," Breed said. "There were some regions that were particularly hard hit that could be looking at power restoration into the weekend. Other areas have become clear already, so about half of our customers who have been impacted have been restored."
CMP says it is also getting help from the Maine Forest Service, using the agency's helicopters to survey damage to transmission lines in remote areas.
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