Unitil has continued to make progress through the morning hours on its restoration efforts in the wake of a damaging snowstorm impacting the area Wednesday afternoon and evening.
Unitil closed its emergency operation center in Massachusetts and has resumed normal operations in that state. As of approximately 1:30 p.m. an estimated 7,800 of Unitil’s customers in the greater Concord, NH area were still without power. However, new outages may continue to develop as trees heavily loaded with hazardous amounts of snow continue to break branches.
If there are customers still without power who see service restored to their street or their immediate neighbors, they should call Unitil customer service immediately. Some individual customer issues may require work from a private electrician before restoration can occur.
“We have approximately 150 crew resources from as far away as Canada and Illinois working to restore customers in and around Concord,” Unitil Media Relations Manager Alec O’Meara said. “We are moving resources that have been working in other regions to the Concord area, and work will continue until all customers have seen power restored.”
If you are planning to use a generator today, please note that an improperly installed or positioned generator can cause exhaust, containing deadly carbon monoxide, to accumulate in your dwelling. Gas appliances that are not getting a sufficient supply of air can release carbon monoxide, a dangerous gas. Watch for things like yellow flames, flickering flames or soot that might indicate an appliance with a problem. Installing a carbon monoxide detector can help detect this odorless and colorless gas before it becomes a dangerous concern.
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.
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.
