More than 55,000 in Maine still without power Sunday from major snowstorm

Dec. 18 (UPI) -- Maine's first big snowstorm of the season has thousands without power Sunday as energy companies scramble to get back online.

Most of Maine remains in a hazardous weather outlook, designated by the National Weather Service office in Portland, Maine. Heavy precipitation and strong winds knocked as many as 108,000 energy customers offline and more than 55,000 still without power.

The total number of customers in the state: 847,554, according to Poweroutage.us.

Weather spotters in Franklin County reported snowfall totals of more than 27 inches. Cumberland County recorded winds in excess of 60 mph.

"For those customers who remain without power we are focused today on providing estimates of when they will be restored as we are making system repairs," said Kerri Therriault, senior director, electric operations for Central Maine Power.

"While the heavy snow still creates some hazards on the system, with the improvement in the road conditions we are able to move more quickly and efficiently today to investigate remaining system damage and communicate restoration estimates to customers and make repairs."

Central Maine Power reports 44,330 customers still affected by outages. About 72,000 have been brought back online with more than 1,500 crew members working throughout its region of service. About 600 workers arrived for assistance on Saturday night.

About 11,800 Versant Power customers in eastern Maine are waiting for service to be restored. On Sunday the company tweeted that there are persistent public safety issues including downed lines, which are the top priority for repairs.

Eastern Maine Electric Cooperative had a spike of about 4,000 customers down which has been reduced to 1,379 early Sunday afternoon.

"Line crews continue to make repairs but it is unclear whether we will be able to restore power to everyone by daylight Monday. At least one additional line crew and an additional tree crew have been hired," the company said in a news release.

Gov. Janet Mills ordered the closure of all state offices on Friday due to hazardous driving conditions.

"With heavy snow likely to accumulate in the afternoon and lead to hazardous driving conditions, I encourage Maine people to stay safe and to be sure to give plenty of room to road crews and first responders as they work to protect us," she said.