CONCORD, N.H. – A construction worker checking a job site in the aftermath of superstorm Sandy was swept to his death by a landslide Tuesday in Lincoln as utility crews elsewhere worked to restore power to hundreds of thousands of customers across the state.

After peaking at about 210,000, the number of outages had dropped to about 128,000 by Tuesday afternoon, and officials said all should be resolved by Saturday.

Most outages appeared to be caused by downed lines, not toppled poles that take longer to fix, said Public Utilities Commission Chairwoman Amy Ignatius.

In Lincoln, Police Chief Theodore Smith said police were notified just before 8:30 a.m. about the fatal accident involving a construction crew checking on a home foundation they had been building.

The victim’s identity wasn’t released.

“The embankment gave way and turned into a landslide of mud, rock and all the water that was in the hole,” Smith said. “It washed him down the equivalent of a 2-3 story incline.”

Other members of the construction crew pulled the man out of the debris and started CPR, but he was declared dead in the ambulance on the way to the hospital, Smith said.

The National Weather Service recorded gusts Monday evening of 60 mph in Portsmouth, 62 mph in Londonderry and 76 mph at the Isle of Shoals, six miles off the coast. Forecasters said rainfall could reach 4 inches. Mount Washington recorded a peak wind gust of 140 mph.

In Windham, a powerful gust caused a tree to fall on a vehicle Monday evening, leaving a man critically injured. Windham police were unable to provide details.

It was the fourth worst storm in terms of power outages in state history, affecting about 30 percent of electricity customers in the state.

The worst was in December 2008 when an ice storm knocked out electricity to 422,000 homes and businesses, Ignatius said.

In Durham, downed trees left residents along a stretch of Durham Point Road stranded Tuesday, though one resident said she and her neighbors were taking it in stride.

Katie Delahaye Paine, who runs a public relations firm from her Durham home and an office in Berlin, said she was relieved to find out her 94-year-old cousin, who lives down the road, was at a rehab center and not at home and that other neighbors also had checked on him.

“It’s very sort of classic New Hampshire — people sitting there saying, ‘If I could just get a bulldozer onto that tree, I could get it out of the way,’” she said. “Great neighborhood spirit.”

Gov. John Lynch said Sandy did not cause the extensive and damaging flooding of past storms, but comparisons don’t matter much to those people who are without electricity.

“It’s still pretty significant to them,” he said.

President Obama on Tuesday granted Lynch’s request to issue an emergency disaster declaration for all 10 counties. It will make federal assistance available for impacted communities.

Ignatius said polling places should be open with power and telephone lines on Election Day next Tuesday.