Unitil: Dump Truck Took Out Power Lines

Power has been restored to nearly the entire city of Concord on the evening of Sept. 11, after a dump truck reportedly took out a Public Service of New Hampshire transmission line. 

At around 5:30 p.m. on Sept. 11, power was knocked out to the Heights area, along Loudon Road, and a number of customers in other towns on the eastern side of the city, including Chichester, Epsom, and Pembroke. 

It took Unitil more than three hours to restore power. 

Concord Police were kept busy for most of that time controlling traffic in the eastern part of the city since the accident knocked out traffic lights. Officers installed remote stop signs and cones in place in high traffic areas in the eastern side of the city, including Loudon Road and D'Amante Drive and Loudon Road and Route 106. The NH DOT was also called in to assist with traffic control signage. 

Concord Fire and Rescue crews were seen racing around Loudon Road but Fire Chief Dan Andrus said that it was only some alarm activations, probably from the power outage. 

Public Service of New Hampshire is also reporting a number of customer outages in the capital region including Pembroke, Epsom, Hooksett and in Chichester. 

By 7 p.m., about 40 percent of the customers were restored and about half of the area's PSNH customers had power as well. By 8:30 p.m., Unitil was reporting that about 100 customers were without power.