Maine news, sports, weather from Waterville Morning Sentinel

Almost all power back, CMP says

Morning Sentinel Staff

Central Maine Power Co. expects that almost all its customers will have their power back this morning.

Early last night, CMP reported just 653 customers in Kennebec County still without electricity. The company said it expected to restore service to nearly everyone later in the night.

Central Maine Power reported a total of 3,737 customers in 34 different towns still without power as of 5 p.m. Thursday.

Communities with customers without power included China, Belgrade and Rome. Waldo County still had 138 outages.

In the aftermath of Tropical Storm Irene, total outages peaked at nearly 187,000 customer accounts Sunday night, according to the power company. The company estimates that about 280,000 customers lost service sometime during the storm, affecting people in 336 towns across 14 counties.

On Thursday, power crews focused mostly on communities in York, Oxford and Cumberland counties, where most of the outages remained.

In a news release, the company said it's still working toward the goal it announced Tuesday of restoring power to all customers by late Thursday night, with the exception of some seasonal camps.

"If the power's out, our customers want to know when it will come back on, and we set that goal so they'll know what to expect," said Sara Burns, president of Central Maine Power. "We're 98 percent of the way there, and everyone in our organization is focused on achieving that goal safely."