AUGUSTA — Central Maine Power continues to restore power to those who lost power during last week’s snow storm. 

Strong wind, driving rain and treacherous road conditions have challenged CMP crews as they continue to restore outages left from Thursday’s snow, rain and wind storm, according to a news release.

The company is persevering and focused on restoring those customers that have been without power since Thursday, while addressing outages that could result from expected wind gusts today, the release said.

Outage numbers continue to fluctuate across the service area as some are restored while new outages occur.

CMP moved additional crews to Penobscot, Waldo and Somerset counties to repair system damage, per the release.

Workers are taking time to navigate through mud and snow while practicing physical distancing on work sites and while traveling.

While the company has secured the support of 210 independent contract line crews remaining in Maine to work with CMP’s 100 internal crews and 129 tree crews, it has lost half of the line resources who were in state over the weekend as out of state utility crews from other utility companies have returned to their home states to respond to storm impacts, according to the release. 

Winds have created smaller scale outages in coastal areas. Forecasts call for maximum gusts that could exceed 50 mph through tonight.

“This has been a very challenging day for every worker in the field,” said Doug Herling, president and CEO of CMP. “We will not stop until all outages are restored and we must prioritize the safety of our employees and contractors.”

CMP follows a restoration process that focuses first on locations that restore larger numbers of customers at once, and then restores equipment and lines serving smaller numbers of customers. With driving rain and hazardous road conditions, crews must take extra care to work safely, and bucket trucks cannot operate in extreme wind conditions.

The company asks that for the health and safety of the working crews and the public that customers not approach lineworkers on work sites.