AUGUSTA — Central Maine Power continues to clear debris and downed wires across its service territory after heavy, wet snow, rain and wind swept across the state Thursday night and into Friday morning, the company said a Friday evening update.

At peak, the company reported 203,000 outages with a total of 260,000 impacted at some point during the storm.

By 5 p.m. Friday, just over 183,000 remained without power.

The company was aided by 345 contract line crews and crews from AVANGRID sister companies, as well as 180 tree crews, according to a news release. 

“We have worked in coordination with the Maine Emergency Management Agency today to ensure all of the state’s hospitals and critical medical facilities have power and emergency vehicle access,” said Doug Herling, President and CEO of CMP. “We expect additional contactor crews to start with us first thing in the morning to make significant progress on restoration.”

CMP has advised customers they should plan to be without power, perhaps for a couple of days given the extent of the outages.

“We understand that most Mainers are at home and have few options to stay elsewhere given the stay at home orders issued by the state,” the company said. “Our crews are working as hard as they can in challenging conditions to restore service as quickly and safely as possible.”

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

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the company is also directing lineworkers and field staff to take all appropriate precautions including:

• Limiting one employee per vehicle travelling to field locations

• Working in separate teams to minimize contact

• Restricting visitor access to company facilities

• Entering a customer residence only in the event of emergency and after assessing risk

• Maintaining appropriate physical distancing in the field

CMP advises customers to use online tools, accessible at cmpco.com to report and monitor outages.

To ease the financial impact of the pandemic, CMP announced that it is suspending late payment and customer reconnection charges for all customers and has extended eligibility protections to customers participating in certain payment plans.

CMP offers the following tips to prepare for the storm and to stay safe if power outages do occur.

Restoration priorities:

• CMP follows an orderly process when restoring service that emphasizes safety and seeks to make effective use of resources.

• CMP’s immediate concern after a storm is public safety. Restoration teams work with towns and the state to de-energize downed lines, clear roads and restore previously identified critical facilities such as hospitals and shelters.

• Next, CMP focuses on assessing damage and repairing the backbone of the electrical system: substations, transmission lines, circuits and primary lines. Crews focus on locations where they can restore large numbers of customers at once.

• Then, crews restore equipment and lines that serve smaller groups of customers.

• Finally, crews focus on restoring remaining service lines to individual homes and buildings until every customer has service. This phase may begin while higher-priority work is already underway.

If you lose service:

• To report an outage, visit Outage Central at cmpco.com. Customers may also report an outage using CMP’s 24/7 automated phone system at 800.696.1000.

• Keep sensitive electronic appliances such as computers, TVs and stereos plugged into a surge protector, or unplug them. They could be damaged if a power surge occurs when electricity is restored.

• Keep refrigerator and freezer doors closed. For information about food safety, visit http://www.foodsafety.gov/keep/charts/refridg_food.html.

• Never use a stove or oven, or an outdoor grill or heater, as an indoor space heater to stay warm. Only use space heaters intended for indoor use inside or in enclosed spaces, following the manufacturer’s instructions. If you are unable to keep your home safely heated, call Maine 211 for resources.

For customers with generators:

• Hire a licensed electrician to install permanent generators and transfer switches.

• Properly ground all portable generators.

• Carefully read and observe all instructions in your generator’s operating manual.

• Never run a generator indoors, or even in an open garage.

• If your carbon monoxide detector goes off – get out of the building immediately and call 911.

• Do not store fuel indoors or try to refuel a generator while it’s running.

• Refer to CMP’s web page on generator safety