MORE COVERAGE: Snow, cold may hamper power efforts in Maine

As of Christmas night, Central Maine Power reported 39,000 households were without power after losing electricity on Monday from a multiple-day ice storm.

“Crews will keep working tonight. There’ll be an enormous push tomorrow,” CMP spokesman John Carroll said Wednesday night. “By the end of the day (Thursday) we will have almost everybody.”

But snow on Thursday could add weight to trees and lines already caked with ice, making repair more difficult. The National Weather Service issued a winter weather advisory calling for 3 to 6 inches of snow between 10 a.m. and 10 p.m. for the Augusta-Waterville area, Bath, Topsham and Belfast.

Accumulating snow could make roads slippery, and the added weight of snow “on ice-laden trees and lines could add to the number of power outages,” making repair more difficult, according to the weather advisory.

The Lewiston area is expected to get 1 to 3 inches of snow Thursday, according to the National Weather Service.

As of Wednesday, households without power numbered 1,121 in Androscoggin County, 21,023 in Kennebec County, 9,375 in Waldo County and 3,608 in Lincoln County.

The ice storm Monday night left 123,000 households without power. Much progress in restoring electricity was made on Christmas Day by 455 power-line crews, 330 tree crews and and another 1,000 of support staff.

CMP had help from companies from Canada and throughout the Northeast, creating five times the normal number of line crews, Carroll said.

Remaining homes without power likely will be those in remote locations, Carroll said. Crews restore power to the most densely populated areas first. That’s why, he said, power was restored sooner in Lewiston-Auburn than in smaller towns in Kennebec County.

Sunshine Bean of Auburn felt like she got a big Christmas present Wednesday when her power came back. Sunshine and Fred Bean have an 11-week-old baby girl, Bianca. They live off Center Street, not in a rural location, which is why Bean said she was surprised they lost power Monday night.

“We were having friends over,” she said. “We just ordered some pizza. All of a sudden everything went black.”

They left and stayed with friends who had power. Christmas became more complicated; last-minute planning for celebrations involved more logistics. Dressing up for Christmas Eve meant remembering to grab not only the gifts, but the right clothing.

Christmas dinner was Chinese food. “We usually go to my family’s, but my parents lost power,” she said. “No way we could cook anything. Everything in our fridge was gone.”

By Christmas night the power was back, and her family was headed home. “I couldn’t be happier,” Bean said.

Jonathan Grover of Auburn, who also lives off Center Street, got his power back Wednesday night. His went out when he saw what he described as “rockets’ red glare,” a tree or limb landing on the power line and blowing a transformer Monday night.

“I thought, ‘It’ll just be a few hours,’” Grover said. “We had a nice dinner by the light of my laptop.”

No power forced life to slow down. Everyone sat around and talked, which was nice, Grover said.

But Tuesday morning was far less pleasant when he, an operating room anesthetist nurse, had to take a cold-water sponge bath to get ready for work. He assumed when he got home late Tuesday there would be power.

“I was wrong,” Grover said. “I did Christmas wrapping at a friend’s house and avoided the homestead. It was cold, and it got even colder.”

He spent Christmas with friends. The power loss was inconvenient, but he adopted a good attitude, saying it allowed his friends and family to come together even more on Christmas.

Rick and Lynn Eastman of Bowdoin, who were eating Christmas dinner at Pepper & Spice Thai Cuisine in Lewiston, said they were heating their home with a wood stove after losing power Monday.

“We’re hanging in there,” she said. They charged heir cellphones in the car. On Christmas morning, they opened presents under a tree that was not lit. Presents included electronics and video games “that we can’t plug in,” Eastman said.

Because CMP brought in extra line crews to repair downed lines on Christmas, and because it was Christmas, special arrangements had to be made to feed workers, Carroll said.

CMP staff was called in to make sandwiches. The Hannaford store in Augusta opened, allowing CMP to get ingredients. The Senator Inn opened, creating a place to feed dinner to 750 workers, Carroll said.

bwashuk@sunjournal.com