Significant restoration expected by Monday -100,000 customers already restored, photos of damage posted
MANCHESTER, N.H., (November 28, 2014 9:00 AM) –Hundreds of workers from New England and beyond worked throughout the night to repair damage caused by the wet, heavy, snow that blanketed the Granite State. Over the last 24 hours, half of the statewide outages have been restored – approximately 110,000 PSNH customers were reported without power as of Friday morning, down from a peak of about 207,000. 28,000 were restored overnight and crews will continue working for at least several more days until every customer is restored.
“Despite extensive damage, we have made excellent progress in restoring our main circuits,” said William Quinlan, President and COO of PSNH. “With the support of workers form our sister companies and other crews from throughout the region, we anticipate substantial completion of our restoration efforts by Monday, with many communities being fully restored over the weekend.” PSNH urges customers still without power to plan accordingly and thanks them for their patience.
The storm caused significant and widespread damage across the PSNH system. With damage assessment nearly complete, the focus is shifting to restoring large pockets of customers. Crews are also dedicated to identifying and repairing individual outages.
Hundreds of additional line workers began arriving Thursday to help restoration efforts, including crews from our sister Northeast Utilities companies in Massachusetts and Connecticut, as well as crews from as far away as Alabama, Michigan, Quebec and Ontario. In total, more than 800 PSNH and contractor line-workers, and more than 300 tree trimming specialists, are now in place and focused on restoring power to customers. Additional resources are also expected to arrive today.
Safety Tips –
-Customers should never touch a downed wire and should assume any downed line is live and dangerous. Be aware that downed wires could also be buried in the snow. Downed lines should be reported to PSNH immediately at 1-800-662-7764
-Customers using generators should make sure they are installed safely for their own safety, as well as that of line workers. A generator should only be wired directly to the house and completely isolated from the utility supply. Otherwise, generator power could feed into the PSNH electrical system, causing unsafe conditions for line workers and neighbors. For more safety tips, visitwww.psnh.com/stormsafety.
If a customer loses power, it’s important to report the outage to PSNH by calling 1-800-662-7764 or through our website, www.psnh.com. Customers can also sign up for twice-daily text message alerts via the power outages page of our website. Photos of storm damage can be found on our Flickr page.
