TOPSHAM

Ice-coated trees and limbs breaking and landing on wires and in roads have kept public safety crews busy since Saturday in the Mid-coast and may not let up until temperatures melt the heavy ice away.

John Carroll, spokesman for Central Maine Power, said Wednesday night that 39,000 CMP customer accounts remained without power this morning statewide. That’s down from an estimated 123,000 CMP and Bangor Hydro customers who lost service due to damage from an ice storm that strafed Maine for more than 48 hours into Monday.

As of 11 a.m. this morning, the company reports 21,000 customers without power. 

“Yesterday, our goals were to keep all our crews safe, working, and well-fed on
Christmas Day, while getting our outage count below 30,000,” said
Carroll this morning. “We met those goals, but progress today could be slower because it’s
snowing and at this stage in the recovery, many crews are working in a lot of remote
areas where the roads are narrow or barely passable.”

Kennebec County has had the highest number of customers without power, which Tuesday morning was still 38,000, followed by Waldo County with 17,589 customers out; Androscoggin County with 9,294 customers out; Sagadahoc County, 3,150; and Cumberland County, 359.

The worst damage struck an approximately 50-mile band from Lewiston to Augusta and east to Belfast; most of the power outages occurred in these areas, with few south of Brunswick.

Unlike the case of a nor’easter snowstorm where you can predict the start and end time, ice storms are more tricky, Carroll noted. They are dangerous conditions to work in because limbs and wires are still falling, and as the weight of the ice sits on trees and limbs, they can break at any time.

That means that, even as crews work to restore power in an area, another limb may come down that sends them back again.

As temperatures warm later in the week to release limbs from ice, there could be more outages as limbs spring up and rub against wires.

Topsham Fire Chief Brian Stockdale said Foreside Road was closed to traffic at around 7 or 8 p.m. Monday after a tree fell onto a high tension wire, pulling other wires down across the road, effectively blocking both lanes near the entrance to the playground at the recreation fields. The tree was still smoking a day later, and public works directors kept the road closed until CMP could respond.

Stockdale said there have also been issues in the Bay Park subdivision area of Route 24 and said firefighters have been called to plenty of blown transformers caused by trees hitting hightension wires since Monday night, letting up around 3 a.m. on Tuesday.

Tuesday morning, more than half of Richmond was without power, according to Richmond Fire Chief Matt Roberge, who counted many trees hanging down and falling down. CMP crews were in town by 9 a.m. working to get power back on. Firefighters were out until midnight responding to calls for trees and lines down.

In addition to line workers and public safety personnel, the storms demanded much of public works crews, as well, who plowed after two storms dropped substantial snow on the Mid-coast last week.

The ice storm started mainly in the form of rain Friday and continued until Sunday as temperatures began to drop. It lasted longer than forecast, making it more difficult to plan for, Topsham Public Works Director Dennis Cox said.

Cox his department had six drivers, a mechanic and a few on-call drivers clearing the town’s 85 miles of roads Tuesday into Wednesday.

With the compilation of storms, the town has used about 50 percent more sand and salt than usual for the month of December, he said — much of that in response to the ice storm.

On night shifts, half the crew is sent home halfway through, then they relieve their replacements in the morning, Cox said.

Once roads are cleared, the town has 13 miles of sidewalk to clear with the sidewalk plow and through all storms, aged equipment is a challenge, and there is another small but plowable storm forecast for today.

Cox said the road crew saw less vehicles on the roads Sunday and Monday which helped in storm clean up and emphasized, “We recognize and appreciate the public’s help,” in obeying the parking ban and getting vehicles off the road, “which makes our job safer.”

The Railway Cafe on Route 197 in Richmond had power as of around 9 a.m. Tuesday and was busy with customers already, according to Jessica Haines who works at the restaurant, and who said there were some customers who said they were unable to travel for the holidays because they don’t have power.

Lynn Spiro, owner of The Town Landing restaurant on Route 24 in downtown Bowdoinham, said Tuesday morning there were a number of people in town without power, including Browns Point Road and parts of Post Road and Route 24.

“There’s an impact being felt,” she said.

But not enough to derail Christmas. She said there were still those last-minute shoppers coming to the store Tuesday, which was closing at 2 p.m., to buy gift certificates to gift loved-ones for Christmas.

Spiro was bound for a Christmas dinner at a friend’s house — without power, but with a generator.

Carroll said crews are restoring power to threephase power systems first, which feed into the singlephase lines in the more rural areas. The utility set up three remote supply sites — in Gardiner, Manchester and Bucksport — to increase the efficiency of restoration.

CMP also brought in 92 crews from out of state and has 200 tree crews cutting away downed trees and limbs so the line crews can do their work. Carroll saif CMP was to be adding another 50 to 75 line repair crews and 100 tree crews, with the final goal to have everyone safe by the end of the week.

The CMP restoration effort included 1,800 personnel on Christmas Day including 455 line crews and 330 tree crews. CMP reported that it had at least one full restoration team on every circuit serving every community with outages.

For safety and productivity reasons, CMP crews work in a rotation of 17 hours — with seven hours off, primarily during daylight hours.

On Tuesday, there were about 1,000 people involved directly in the restoration including those engaged in the field as mechanics, stock people and those managing logistics, Carroll said. These workers worked on Christmas — and the message CMP is sending its workers is not to feel more stressed or anxious to make repairs because it is Christmas; to ensure crews adhere to all safety measures as they work in close geographic proximity to one another requiring another level of caution; and to make sure everyone stays safe.

Carroll reminded people to stay away from downed lines, even though they may be de-energized. For example, if someone hooks up a generator incorrectly, it can backfeed the system and energize a significant area of line.

Anyone using generators should keep them outside, properly vented, and away from windows where carbon monoxide fumes can get inside homes.

A 50-year-old man was found dead Tuesday in Knox after succumbing to carbon monoxide fumes while trying to refuel a generator in an enclosed garage.

The American Red Cross opened four shelters, in Belfast, Brewer, Calais and Lewiston; and was slated to open sites in Augusta and Ellsworth.

With traffic picking up at the Topsham Fair Mall Tuesday afternoon, Hannaford store manager Todd Pelletier said the supermarket was seeing as many customers as it expected, but they are moving different items than usually.

Normally, the store sells a lot chocolates, flour and oils for baking the day before Christmas. But the ice storm rendewred a need for canned goods and things like pasta and sauces instead.

“I’ve been bagging and talking with customers,” Pelletier said, and spoke with a man who was in with his family buying water, batteries and a prepared rotisserie chicken and bread to get them through the night.

In the meantime, “everyone is in great sprits,” including those without power. It’s that time of year, Pelletier said, “when it’s hard to get them down.”

dmoore@timesrecord.com

AT 9 P.M. WEDNESDAY, Sagadahoc County, which had a total of 6,827 customers reporting outages since Monday morning, was down to 1,065 accounts still out Wednesday and only 511 as of 11 a.m. this morning.

Cumberland County was reporting no outages Wednesday or this morning.

Lisbon, which had more than 1,500 customers out Tuesday, was down to about three customers without power as of 6:30 p.m. Wednesday. Richmond had a little over 1,000 outages and was down to 638. Topsham customers reported 667 outages Tuesday afternoon; none as of 6:30 p.m. Wednesday. Bowdoinham went from about 797 to 359 and Bowdoin from 479 to 256.

A total of 123,416 accounts reporting power outages since Monday was down to 30,813 without power Wednesday and 20,823 this morning.

Source: Central Maine Power Co.