Central Maine Power prepares for wind storm
Southerly winds are to increase ahead of an approaching storm that is to bring wind gusts in the 50 to 60 mph range by Friday afternoon, especially near the coast. Temperatures are expected to climb into the 40s and 50s ahead of the front, according to the National Weather Service. As the front crosses the area, temperatures will begin a steady decline into the 20s by Saturday morning. A weak system will cross north of the area Saturday night, but only light snow or snow showers are expected. Another clipper is then possible by Tuesday, NWS said. (Image courtesy NOAA)
Southerly winds are to increase ahead of an approaching storm that is to bring wind gusts in the 50 to 60 mph range by Friday afternoon, especially near the coast. Temperatures are expected to climb into the 40s and 50s ahead of the front, according to the National Weather Service. As the front crosses the area, temperatures will begin a steady decline into the 20s by Saturday morning. A weak system will cross north of the area Saturday night, but only light snow or snow showers are expected. Another clipper is then possible by Tuesday, NWS said. (Image courtesy NOAA)AUGUSTA – Central Maine Power, a subsidiary of Avangrid Inc., is prepared for a windstorm expected to bring high winds and rain to Maine starting Friday morning. CMP said a team of meteorologists began tracking this storm earlier this week and windy conditions are forecasted to persist into Saturday.
In preparation for the storm, CMP is staffing extra crews at its service centers across regions of Maine so they can respond quickly and safely to any outages that may occur, CMP said. For safety reasons, CMP crews are prohibited from raising bucket truck arms when windspeeds are greater than 30 mph.
"CMP crews are taking steps today to prepare for this forecasted windstorm," said Linda Ball, President and CEO of Central Maine Power, in a Dec. 18 news release. "We’re currently preparing storm kits for crews that include items commonly needed for frontline storm restoration including fuses, wires and extra field equipment. Today is also a good time for customers to review CMP’s Storm Safety Checklist to make sure they’re ready, too.”
In every storm, CMP assists local emergency management agencies to clear roads blocked by downed trees. Falling trees are the leading cause of outages at CMP and road clearing can occur, even when it is too windy for crews to work in the air in buckets.
To learn more about how CMP prepares for storms with the Maine Emergency Management Agency and county emergency management agencies, click here.
