Cleanup Continues One Week After The Windstorm

Utility crews continue to restore power as communities begin cleaning up downed trees and damaged property.

Emera Maine and Central Maine Power came close to reaching their goal of having 100% of customers online by Saturday night, but the effort continues as the task proved more challenging than anticipated. Emera Maine's live outage map reported 839 customers without power at 9:31 this morning, while CMP's outage list showed a total of 6,454 at just before 9:30.

Company officials say the numbers have fluctuated over the weekend since it's been necessary to shut down power to some customers in order to make individual repairs. Plus, some trees that were damaged in the storm have taken longer to fall, causing more damage. Most of the outages that haven't been repaired involve seasonal or remote homes, or homes that had damage to their equipment, like wires pulled off of houses.

The Department of Agriculture, Conservation, and Forestry will take to the skies this week to assess damage to Maine's woodlands. While the storm has been compared to the Ice Storm of 1998, forestry officials don't believe the tree damage will be as great. During the ice storm, whole swaths of trees were knocked down, but officials say the high winds last week mainly affected trees in backyards or along roadways that were exposed to those high gusts.

Communities are offering help getting rid of all that debris. The City of Bangor is asking residents to have their brush and tree debris at the curb early this morning, so pulp trucks can pick it up. They request that folks keep those piles away from power lines, so the trucks can have access, and away from piles of leaves that could clog the vacuum. For information on cleanup in your community, contact your town office or public works department.