Unitil Says It's Ready for Ice Storm

Unitil on Friday said it's ready for a possible ice storm expected to hit Saturday night.

The National Weather Service issued an alert for the Exeter area about possible freezing rain.

Below is a news release from Unitil:

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Unitil Corporation, (www.unitil.com), a provider of natural gas and electricity to customers in New England, is preparing for a possible ice event in its service territories, with customers in and around Concord at greatest risk for hazard level ice. 

According to the most recent forecasts, 0.1-0.3 inches of ice accretion are possible throughout Unitil’s electric service territories in New Hampshire Saturday night and into Sunday, with isolated areas of .5 inches possible in the Concord region. While the most serious icing is expected to occur well north ofUnitil’s service territory, these ice levels have the potential to damage tree limbs and  utility poles, meaning the possibility for electric outages exists for this event.

“A temperature change of less than a fraction of a degree can have a substantial impact on the overall level of icing in a storm,” Unitil Media Relations Manager Alec O’Meara said. “We must continue to monitor the forecast, and we will be prepared to escalate if necessary.”

Currently, Unitil has reached out to third party contractors and secured an 70 tree and bucket crews plus an additional 50 wires down and damage assessment support staff to provide assistance should the need arise and plans to open its regional emergency operations center in Concord, New Hampshire Sunday morning.Unitil staff will continue to closely monitor the forecast and will be prepared to escalate its response if warranted. 

Unitil will be communicating throughout the restoration through Public Service Announcements (PSAs), our website, our customer call center and through the media.  We also encourage customers to follow along with our storm updates via our Twitter feed (@Unitil), Facebook and will be providing real-time outage information online at www.unitil.com/map.

EXETER STORM RESOURCES

• The Unitil power company's live outage map
• Unitil's Twitter account (where it posts outage updates)
• Police Department: 603-772-1212
• Fire Department: 603-772-1212
• Public Works Department: 603-773-6157 (603-772-1212 in emergencies)
• Comcast: 1-800-266-2278
• Al's Automotive Towing: 603-778-8158

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