Maine Gets Sunshine but Still Shivers

Clouds gave way to sunshine Saturday as utility crews labored in frigid temperatures to restore service to thousands of people in their 10th day without electricity.

Maine’s two largest electricity providers said Saturday that a few areas blacked out by last week’s ice storm are fully back on line or close to it, although some summer homes might not see electricity until spring.

“It’s quiet for the first time in days. We’re all enjoying that,” said National Guard Master Sgt. Allyson Cox at the state’s Emergency Management Agency headquarters.

However, the National Weather Service warned of dangerously low wind chills in southern and central Maine. Northerly wind gusting to 30 mph combined with temperatures in the teens to produce wind chills down to 20 below zero.

“But cold isn’t that big a deal, because crews are pretty well equipped, clothing-wise,” Cox said.

Maine’s biggest utilities said Saturday that they still had about 40,000 customers without power, down from a peak of nearly 400,000 a week ago.

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Long-term relief efforts were stepped up Saturday as the federal Small Business Administration opened a disaster loan workshop in Lewiston.

Aides to Gov. Angus King manned phones at the Statehouse in Augusta, referring callers with storm-related problems to various agencies and coordinating contacts between utilities and government departments.

“We’re here so that people who don’t have power don’t think everybody has given up,” said Kay Rand, King’s top assistant.

In northern New York state, about 61,000 customers were still waiting for power Saturday.

Crews in New York were hampered by a storm that piled as much as 18 inches of snow in their way Thursday and Friday.

“The snow means we have to have roads plowed across fields so that our crews and trucks can gain access to lines and install new poles,” said Robert Perkins of New York State Electric & Gas.

In addition to utility crews at work in New York, about 2,700 National Guard members were on duty Saturday going door-to-door to find people stranded without power and delivering food, fuel and medical supplies. National Guard crews also resumed reconnaissance flights Saturday after suspending the airborne searches Friday because of the snowstorm.

Central Maine Power Co. said it had fully restored service to all but a few year-round residents in some areas.

“However, there are hundreds of unoccupied seasonal residences which will still need repair, and that effort could easily stretch into the spring, given the remote locations and severe tree damage involved,” said CMP spokesman Mark Ishkanian.

A new ice storm on Friday coated much of Connecticut, which had escaped the brunt of the earlier storm that hammered northern New England and New York.

About 16,200 Connecticut homes remained blacked out Saturday, but most were expected to have service restored during the weekend, utility officials said.

Ice collected in a thick coat on everything from power lines to airliners and parked cars.

“My car was covered with a sheet of ice, like a quarter-inch thick,” said David Greene, a courier in Connecticut who suffered bloody knuckles from chipping the ice off his car.