Unitil Corporation, (www.unitil.com), a provider of natural gas and electricity to customers in New England, expects to have the majority of customers’ power restored by the end of the day on Friday with individual service issues extending into Saturday.
The duration of the storm on Wednesday into the early morning hours of Thursday, along with the heavy wet snow and gusty winds, resulted in many customers losing power, in some instances multiple times.
As of 5 p.m., Unitil has approximately 11,200 customers without power, down from a peak of more than 31,000 overnight on Wednesday. Of those, approximately 10,450 of the customers without power are in Unitil’s New Hampshire Capital (Concord, NH) area, 180 are without power in the NH Seacoast region and 570 are without power in Massachusetts. The majority of customers in Massachusetts are still on target to be restored by the end of today, with some individual service issues continuing into Friday. In the Capital and Seacoast regions of New Hampshire, the majority of customers are also expected to be restored by Friday, again with some individual service issues continuing into Saturday.
Crews from as far away as Canada, Atlanta, Illinois and Tennessee have joined the extensive restoration effort.
“We want to give thanks to our customers for their patience and to our Unitil crews, support staff and the crews that have joined our restoration effort from all over the United States and Canada, for giving up their own holidays to insure that our customers’ power is restored as quickly and safely as possible,” Unitil media relations manager Alec O’Meara said. “We will be working tirelessly until all customers are restored this weekend. We ask for your continued patience and understanding.”
Unitil will be communicating throughout the storm and restoration through Public Service Announcements (PSAs), our customer call center and through the media. We also encourage customers to follow along with our storm updates via our Twitter feed (@Unitil), on Facebook and 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. Re-Tweets and re-posting of old information without referencing a time can create confusion.
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 lined because water conducts electricity. In addition, keep away from all flooded and debris laden areas because they may be hiding downed lines and avoid anything metal nearby which could potentially conduct electricity. Stay in a safe place and avoid driving in damaged areas so you don’t interfere with rescue and restoration efforts.
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-outage.
