Down to About 76,000 Customers

More than 1,000 line workers are scrambling to get power back on to about 75,000 customers as the Thanksgiving storm power outage enters the 60-hour mark for some Granite State residents.

As of 10 p.m., about 76,000 customers were reportedly without power with Public Service of New Hampshire serving the bulk of those customers.

PSNH was reporting 74,245 customers still without power on its Twitter feed noting that its town-by-town outage map and new phone texting update service were both down.

“We are working to develop a work-around to disabled outage map,” the alert stated.

Earlier today, PSNH held a press conference in Manchester updating officials and the media about its progress. The company noted that “the vast majority of customers will be restored – projected for Monday” while adding that large pockets of customers as well as priority facilities like schools, medical, and economic centers, were being restored first.

“We expect to make tremendous progress as we head into the weekend, with substantial completion of our restoration efforts by Monday,” said William Quinlan, President and COO of PSNH. “Thanks to the support of workers from our sister companies and other crews from throughout the region, we do believe that many communities will be fully restored over the weekend.”

Unitil was reporting more than 2,300 without power including more than 700 in Concord. Both Chichester and Epsom were reporting about 40 percent of those town’s Unitil customers without power. Bow was reporting 364 customers without power. Canterbury is now down to about 66.

The company stated that it expected the majority of customers to have power by Saturday morning.

“Crews will be working round-the-clock overnight to restore power to the remaining customers,” Unitil Media Relations Manager Alec O’Meara said. “Temperatures will be dropping into the single digits this evening, so we urge customers who are still without power to find a shelter or warming center, or if they are using a generator to make sure they do so safely.”

Photo caption: A line worker cuts tree branches on wires in Brentwood. Credit: PSNH Twitter account.