Unitil Corporation, (Unitil.com), a provider of natural gas and electricity to customers in New England, is responding to outages in all regions as a rain and wind storm passes through New England today.
According to the most recent forecast, peak wind gusts of 40-50 miles per hour are possible in all Unitil service regions during the daylight hours today, with higher gusts possible in coastal areas. As of 8:50 a.m. approximately 3,500 Unitil customers are without power, approximately 3,000 of which are in New Hampshire and 500 in Massachusetts. Crews are working to restore power, but new outages will likely continue to occur so long as hazardous conditions persist.
“This is a long duration wind event, meaning we expect new outages to appear on the system for the next several hours as crews pick up issues that have already been reported,” Unitil External Affairs Manager Alec O’Meara said. “Additionally, there may be periods where bucket truck arms cannot safely extend due to the winds, further delaying efforts. We will be working to address public safety issues with first responders and restoring power where possible during the peak hours of the event.”
The windy conditions have the potential to take wires to the ground. In the event of downed wires, assume all cables and wires that have fallen or dangling are energized and stay away. Be sure to avoid wet ground or puddles near a downed line because water conducts electricity. In addition, keep away from all flooded and debris laden areas because they may be hiding downed lines. Stay in a safe place and avoid driving in damaged areas so you don’t interfere with rescue and restoration efforts.
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 unitil.com/map.
Customers experiencing outages should call 1-888-301-7700 or report online at unitil.com/report-outage.
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.
