Unitil Corporation, (www.unitil.com), a provider of natural gas and electricity to customers in New England, has continued to make progress today in the aftermath of a major nor’easter. As of 8:30 p.m. Unitil has approximately 8,300 customers without power, down from a pre-dawn peak of approximately 24,000. All outages are currently in the New Hampshire Seacoast region. Unitil is currently estimating that it will restore power to the majority of impacted customers by end of day Friday, with some single service and isolated pockets extending into Saturday evening.
"Our crews have put in tremendous effort in very difficult conditions over the last 24 hours. We’ll continue to stagger shifts to work through the night and will continue to work around the clock until restoration is complete."
Alec O’Meara, Unitil Media Relations Manager
Altogether, more than 150 crew resources, including bucket crews, tree crews, wires down personnel and damage assessors are coordinating as part of Unitil’s restoration. Crews from as far away as Canada have been secured and have joined the restoration effort, as has mutual aid assistance from regional utilities.
When utilizing generators, it is important to ensure that they are located outside and have appropriate venting. As a reminder, generators exhaust carbon monoxide, a deadly, silent odorless gas. If you suspect carbon monoxide poisoning, leave the area to get fresh air.
Unitil will be communicating throughout the event through Public Service Announcements (PSAs), our website, our customer call center and through the media. We also encourage customers to follow along with our storm updates via Facebook, our Twitter feed (@Unitil) and we will be providing real-time outage information online at www.unitil.com/map.
IMPORTANT NOTE FOR MEDIA: Unitil asks that when reporting outage information, outlets time stamp the information. Outage numbers change hourly and we wish to make sure the information customers receive is consistent and understandable. Re-Tweets and re-posting of old information without referencing a time can create confusion.
Customers experiencing outages should call the following toll-free numbers:
- For the NH Seacoast Area: 1-800-582-7276
- For the NH Capital Area: 1-800-852-3339
- For Massachusetts: 1-888-301-7700
You can also report outages online at http://www.unitil.com/report-
