Unitil Corporation, (Unitil.com), a provider of natural gas and electricity to customers in New England, opened its system Emergency Operations Center at 10 a.m. this morning to coordinate response efforts as a strong storm system is expected to continue impacting the region into the afternoon with heavy rain and gusty winds.
As of 12 p.m., approximately 5,400 Unitil customers were without power, down from 11,668 earlier in the morning. Of those impacted customers, 5,378 were in New Hampshire and 30 were in Massachusetts. Strong winds moved into New England early this morning with some areas experiencing gusts over 50 mph. Based on the latest forecast, the peak winds are expected to begin diminishing through the afternoon, but additional outages could occur as the storm passes through the region.
“Winds of this magnitude have certainly had an impact on our system in all service territories, but particularly on the New Hampshire Seacoast where we’ve seen numerous wires down and broken poles. The combination of heavy rain and strong winds has created challenging conditions, but our crews are continuing to work with local first responders to restore power as quickly and safely as possible,” said Unitil External Affairs Manager Alec O’Meara.
Activating the Emergency Operations Center allows Unitil to better manage its resources and overall response to the ongoing outages.
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.
