Central Maine Power restores electricity to 85,000 customers following July 16 storm
Todd Anderson, of Camden, created a video from footage of the storm as it passed through town and over Penobscot Bay July 16.
Todd Anderson, of Camden, created a video from footage of the storm as it passed through town and over Penobscot Bay July 16.Central Maine Power has restored electricity to more than 85,000 customers, representing more than 91% of those affected by the severe thunderstorms that moved through Maine on Thursday, according to a news release from CMP.
CMP immediately deployed crews to respond to these storms with line and tree teams working from Thursday afternoon through the overnight into Friday, CMP said. More than 26,000 customers were restored during the overnight hours.
In downtown Camden, the storm blew down over Megunticook Mountain and along Penobscot Bay from the north. The video here, courtesy of Todd Anderson, captures its intensity.
More than 200 line and tree crews, including some from CMP’s sister company in Connecticut, are continuing to work to restore power. Work will not stop until all customers have service restored, the release said.
CMP expects to restore power to most customers affected by the storm by late Friday, with nearly all remaining customers restored by midday Saturday. Restoration efforts continue around the clock as crews safely repair extensive damage caused by fallen trees and severe weather.
"Responding to significant tree damage like this requires care to navigate scenes and clear debris safely,” said CMP spokesperson, Dustin Wlodkowski, in the release. "Falling trees and limbs also impacted all kinds of locations. In Bethel, a large tree that was outside our legally-approved trim zone fell on a transmission line serving 5,200 customers. In customers’ driveways, crews are having to address multiple trees to repair one line that goes to one home.”
“We appreciate the understanding and thank yous we’re getting out there as we make our way through a mess of logs, branches, leaves and downed wires, town by town and county by county,” said Sam Webber, Lead Lineworker for CMP. “We know our customers are counting on us to get the lights back on quickly and do it right, which, as always, means safety comes first. These are the most outages from a single storm system we’ve responded to all year so far.”
The company is updating restoration times to reflect progress, and these updates will be communicated to customers through our Outage Alerts.
Customers are reminded to stay far away from any downed lines.
