Blustery Winds Knock Out Power to Thousands in NH

CONCORD, NH — More than 24,000 electricity customers in New Hampshire are without power as of 12:30 p.m. on March 2, 2017, due to blustery weather conditions – including wind gusts of more than 50 mph – reported, according to outage reports online.

At this point, Eversource, the state's largest utility, is handling the bulk of the outages, with more than 21,000 customers without power. Earlier today, a number of Patch communities were reporting thousands of customers without power but in many of those communities – Amherst, Bedford, Londonderry, Milford, Nashua, and Portsmouth – the range in outages is from 30 to a few hundred. Power in Merrimack has almost been completely restored, according to online notifications.

Other major outages include Rindge – with more than 2,500 customers out at this time – as well as between 100 and 1,500 customers in Antrim, Bradford, Brookline, Canterbury, Derring, Dover, Mont Vernon, Hillsborough, Henniker, Hopkinton, Webster, Weare, and all of the company’s customers along the Canadian border.

After restoring most of its capital region and Seacoast customers earlier today – after more than 2,000 reported outages – Unitil reported that nearly 2,500 were now without power in both regions of the state.

The entire community of Epsom is without power as of 12:45 p.m. while Chichester is reporting more than 800 without power. Customers in Allenstown, Boscawen, Canterbury, Concord, Loudon, Salisbury, and Webster, are also reporting outages while Atkinson, Danville, Hampton, Kingston, and Seabrook, are all reporting outages in the eastern part of New Hampshire.

Unitil – which also has nearly 30,000 customers in Massachusetts, along the central northern border with western New Hampshire – has more than 26,000 customers out in that region.

Liberty Utilities is reporting outages in Canaan, Derry, Pelham, Salem, Walpole, and Windham.

New Hampshire Patch will update this post when more information becomes available.