Maine power companies give advice ahead of Lee

BANGOR, Maine (WABI) - Predictions about the impacts of Hurricane Lee are soon to become realities - with the state’s power providers concerned over some parts of Maine that are expected to be hit hard.

Central Maine Power and Versant Power have been tracking the weather all week, but there is only so much they can do ahead of Lee getting here.

And once it arrives things need to die down before they can dispatch crews.

“We are anticipating that this could be a multi day restoration. We encourage folks to have water and food on hand as well as flashlights and batteries. Worst case scenario I would say to prepare for about three days and that is what MEMA is recommending at this time as well,” said Marissa Minor, Versant lead communications specialist.

“Sometimes it can take time to get our guys out there to restore because we have wind restriction limits in the bucket trucks. So we need to see when below 35 miles per hour before we can put crews in the buckets to get them up to restore power. And that’s because we need to keep our people safe,” said Jon Breed, CMP spokesperson.

An example would be during a storm over Christmas last year when CMP had more than 300,000 people without electricity.

They tell TV5 even the most remote location was only in the dark for three days.

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