Utilities rush to restore power, phone service

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BANGOR – The storm that pummeled the state Sunday afternoon may have been fast and furious, but the cleanup that began Monday is a slow and deliberate process, requiring a great deal of patience, officials said Monday evening.

Power companies were warning that some customers could be without power until Wednesday, and Bangor Hydro-Electric Co., which had thousands of customers without power, sought help from two other utilities.

“This is a significant event,” said Janice Piper, customer service manager for Bangor Hydro. “We are making slow but steady progress and have called for and will receive assistance from two other utilities, who will provide crews to us” on Tuesday.

With more snow predicted for today, there may be little rest for the weary utility and work crews. The National Weather Service reported Monday afternoon that 3-5 inches could fall through Tuesday night in southern Penobscot County, interior Hancock County and central Washington County. Slightly higher accumulations of 3-6 inches were predicted for Piscataquis and Aroostook counties.

Meanwhile, road crews across the state continued their assault on the frozen snowpack, which made many roads hazardous throughout the day Monday, and phone-line repair crews went to work trying to restore lines to about 1,800 customers from Bangor to the midcoast area.

Police reported one fatality as a result of the storm. Alan Work, 40, of Jackson was killed when his snowmobile struck a parked van on the East Thorndike Road in Jackson. Maine public safety spokesman Stephen McCausland said the accident took place at about 9 p.m. Work, who lived down the road, was riding a 2001 Arctic Cat when he hit a Chevrolet Lumina van that had been abandoned on the side of the road after getting stuck. Visibility was poor because of high winds and blowing snow. The accident was witnessed by a snowplow driver, who notified the victim’s brother. Maine State Police Trooper Jason Richards was the investigating officer.

The storm, or the winds that followed behind it, knocked out power for tens of thousands of residents throughout the state.

Central Maine Power Co. reported 60,000 customers were without power Monday morning, but reduced that number to about 26,000 by late Monday afternoon. The company reported 14,000 customers without power in the Brunswick area, 6,300 in the area of Rockland and Belfast and about 4,000 in Augusta.

Wet, heavy snow and winds caused numerous downed lines and broken poles, leaving residents in the dark and hampering snow removal efforts.

“Today we are salting the roads and using the graders to try to break up the snowpack, which is making for some slippery roads today. We’re also moving the snow back to widen the shoulders,” said Veronica Betts at the Maine Department of Transportation’s Bangor office. “And we are going back to try to clear roads that we couldn’t get to last night because they were blocked by trees or downed power lines.”

About 10,000 Bangor Hydro customers in four counties were without power Sunday night and Monday.

“Basically if they haven’t got power by 7 [p.m.] tonight, they probably won’t have it until Tuesday,” Piper said Monday afternoon. “Our crews have been working since yesterday afternoon and we need to give them a break. We will have some crews on throughout the night for emergencies, but other than that we are preparing them for a big day Tuesday, and we also will have crews from Maine Public Service and New Brunswick who will be on hand to start in at daylight.”

Although most roads in Hancock County were cleared and passable by Monday morning, power outages throughout the area forced the cancellation of school in some communities.

Youngsters in Ellsworth and Bucksport had school, but classes were canceled because of power outages in Stonington and Deer Isle; in Union 93, which includes the towns of Penobscot, Castine, Brooksville and Blue Hill; and Union 98 on Mount Desert Island, among others.

Reports from around Hancock county indicated there were numerous trees and branches down on power lines, causing many of the outages.

For some, the snow was a welcome thing. Most of the St. John Valley received between 6 and 9 inches of snow from Sunday’s storm. Much of the area had little more than 2 inches on the ground until Sunday morning.

“Well, we at least got some snow to snowmobile on,” Andy Daigle, president of the sixth annual International Snowmobile Festival, said Monday morning. “A lot more snow would have been even better.”

The festival will be held for three days in Madawaska, starting Feb. 1.

The storm also played havoc with telephone lines. Peter Reilly, spokesman for Verizon, said 1,800 customers were without phone service from Greater Bangor to midcoast Maine. He said that represented a very small portion of the company’s customers. Reilly said service should be restored to those customers by Wednesday.

Bert Ingraham Jr., director of the Penobscot County Emergency Management Agency, spent much of the day working with the Pine Tree Chapter of the American Red Cross preparing to open shelters if needed for people without power.

“We were preparing to open a shelter in Bangor and one for Indian Island residents,” Ingraham said. “I’m glad to say that as of this afternoon we don’t feel it is necessary.”

Residents of Birch Hill Estates, off Broadway in Bangor, and a large number of residents on Indian Island were without power and many needed a place to go, he said. Bangor Hydro was able to get power restored to both locations Monday afternoon, alleviating the need for the shelter, which would most likely have been opened at a hangar on the base of the Maine Air National Guard.

“Most often when we are faced with the need for shelters, the schools are closed and we use them,” Ingraham said. “In this case the schools were open, so we were preparing to use the hangar.”

Ingraham said anyone in need of assistance in the next couple of days should contact the American Red Cross at 941-2900 or the local or county law enforcement agency in their area.

He also urged people to check on their neighbors.

“We weathered the ice storm together. One or two nights should not be a problem for most folks. The folks with medical needs that I’m aware of in Penobscot County have been taken care of. If not, they should contact someone for help.”

Piper said she was aware that some Bangor Hydro customers were irritated that they were met only by a busy signal when trying to contact the company, but could only urge them to patient and keep trying.

“We have all of our lines going. We are very, very busy and calls are constantly backed up,” she said.

Heavy, wet snow and high wind gusts were responsible for the outages that occurred in the company’s distribution lines, making for a slow repair process, Piper said.

“Our transmission lines are going; it’s the distribution lines that are the problem. That means it’s road by road, street by street. It takes time,” she said.

Though outages were reported in Washington, Hancock, Penobscot and Lincoln counties, the majority of outages were in Central Penobscot and Hancock counties, she said.

“This is not going to be over today,” a clearly fatigued Piper said Monday afternoon. “We will get back to it in full force on Tuesday.”

Bangor Public Works crews were out all night Sunday night and all day Monday.

“Things weren’t going so well this morning,” said David Rice of Bangor Public Works. “It was pretty rough because it was too cold and the salt wasn’t working. The sun’s getting up there now and it’s starting to take effect. We’ve also been opening some roads we couldn’t get to last night because they were blocked off. We got to most of them, but there were probably 25 or 30 that were blocked by trees or wires.”

NEWS reporters Doug Kesseli, Walter Griffin, Rich Hewitt and Beurmond Banville contributed to this report.