Power back on for all of Rochester, but some area outages persist

ROCHESTER - While power to Rochester, Dover and Somersoworth residents has all be restored as of this morning, nearly a third of CMP customers in Acton, Maine, are still without power and many Eversource customers in nearby Ossipee are being told it could be a couple of day before their power is restored.
The two-day storm dumped nearly a foot and a half of heavy, wet snow in Ossipee, but only about four inches in the Rochester area.
Eversource is reporting today that there are still several towns in the Greater Rochester area that are without power, including 68 customers in Dover and a handful in Milton.
CMP's outage map indicated today there were more than 900 customers in Acton still without power, 29 in Berwick and 159 in Lebanon.

Meanwhile, statewide, more than 25,000 customers remained without power as of 8 p.m. Saturday.

"Many people have been without power most of the day Saturday or possibly longer," said Robert Buxton, Director of the New Hampshire Department of Safety's Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management (HSEM). "It is critical that residents and visitors practice power outage safety until crews can restore the utility lines. Never run a generator indoors. Stay away from downed power lines and call 911 if you see one."

Power outages should be reported to your utility provider every 24 hours until power is restored:

Eversource 1-800-662-7764

Liberty Utilities 1-855-349-9455

NH Electric Co-Op 1-800-343-6432

Unitil 1-888-301-7700

The State Emergency Operations Center will remained activated through Saturday night in response to the outages.

Buxton also makes the following safety recommendations:

· Stay informed by signing up for NH Alerts and monitoring National Weather Service radio or broadcast weather reports.

· Drivers should use extra caution, go slow and be alert for crews clearing debris.

· Use flashlights, rather than candles, for emergency lighting.

· Do not use a gas range or oven as an alternate source of heat.

· Only use a generator that has been wired to the house electrical service by a professional electrician.

· Never run a generator inside a building or in an enclosed space and keep them 10 feet away from buildings with the exhaust pointed away.