ROCKLAND — Municipal Public Works crews have cleared and reopened most all roads while utility restorations continue in earnest by Central Maine Power, Consolidated Communications and other wireline service providers.

As remaining power outages quickly wind down towards 5,000; from over 10,000 this time yesterday, we expect to see large areas restored this evening especially in the hardest hit areas of Union, Hope, Saint George and Friendship. Other areas are seeing steady progress.

As usual, providers seek to restore the largest portions of the population with single repairs. This restoration “triage” often leads to longer restoration times for remote, seasonal or isolated single family homes but results in a more efficient recovery for the majority of area residents.

Like you, we observed data provided by CMP’s Online Outage Central to be often flawed during the first 24 hours or so of this recovery; with the system appearing to have crashed for a few hours.

As additional crews were fielded and outages and repair plans were set, the system stabilized and we have observed the reported numbers and restoration time estimates to be more much more reliable reflecting actual restoration status.

If power is back on your road, but not at your house, please report your outage online to CMP at ecmp.cmpco.com/WebOutage or by calling their outage reporting line (800)696-1000. Except for the most isolated seasonal homes or camp roads, we expect most Knox County residences and businesses will be fully restored by Sunday. If your telephone or cable service is out, please contact your provider to report the outage. They may not know in all cases.

Your continued attention to safe operation of generators is appreciated. Utility crews from all over the northeast U.S. and Canadian Maritimes are helping out with this major restoration operation. We appreciate their efforts. Please respect their work zones!

Be extra careful driving around crews working alongside roads. Move over and give them room — it’s not only the law; it’s the Maine thing you can do!