Across NH, 160K Remain Without Power

For thousands of people in the Granite State, Thanksgiving Day was a mixed bag, especially if you live in one of the communities in the central and southern part of the state without power.

A wintery mix of heavy, wet snow quickly dropped down on most of the state yesterday and early this morning, putting nearly 200,000 electric customers in the dark. In some parts of the state, people have been without power for about 34 hours.

The city of Nashua and the Red Cross opened up a shelter for that community earlier this afternoon. Allenstown, Londonderry, and other communities have also opened shelters, according to WMUR-TV.

In a statement on its website, Public Service of New Hampshire says it has about 300 line workers in the field working to restore power, with another 500 line workers from Massachusetts and Connecticut arriving tonight and tomorrow to assist.

“Assessment is still ongoing in many parts of the state,” according to the statement. “PSNH thanks customers for patience and advises them to prepare for the possibility of several days without power.”

Unitil, in a statement posted on its website, said it hoped to have power restored in New Hampshire by Friday and Saturday.

“We want to give thanks to our customers for their patience and to our Unitil crews, support staff and the crews that have joined our restoration effort from all over the United States and Canada, for giving up their own holidays to insure that our customers’ power is restored as quickly and safely as possible,” Unitil media relations manager Alec O’Meara said. “We will be working tirelessly until all customers are restored this weekend. We ask for your continued patience and understanding.”

Crews are coming from Canada, George, Illinois, and Tennessee to assist, according to the company.

Outage information

Currently, there are about 160,000 customers without power around New Hampshire.

Unitil is reporting about 11,000 customers without power mostly in Concord and surrounding towns, including Boscawen, Bow, Canterbury, Epsom, and Webster.

About 200 are without power in Exeter, Hampton, Hampton Falls, Kingston, and Stratham.

PSNH is reporting more than 138,000 without power including 6,600 in Nashua, 5,000 in Bedford, 4,400 in Merrimack, 3,400 in Amherst, 2,800 in Londonderry, 2,100 in Milford, and 1,200 in Windham.

More than 12,000 PSNH customers around Concord – Hopkinton, Dunbarton, Hooksett, Chichester, Allenstown, Pembroke, Epsom, Loudon, Canterbury, and Webster – are also still without power.

The New Hampshire Electric Co-Op is also reporting about 11,000 customers without power including Exeter and Londonderry.

Liberty Utilities is reporting 33 customers without power in Pelham and Salem.

Photo: Contractors arrive in New Hampshire to assist getting Unitil customers back online. Credit: Twitter.