PSNH Contact: Mike Skelton, Communications Specialist skeltmj@psnh.com

Release: 11-1005

For Immediate Release:

'Snowtober' Outage Update

November 3, 2011 6:00 a.m.

Manchester, NH November 3, 2011 -- Crews from Public Service of New Hampshire, and support crews from across the country, are gearing up to make repairs to the estimated 34,000 homes and businesses that remain without power following last weekend's devastating snowstorm. More than 500 crews are working to restore power, including about 370 PSNH and contractor line crews and more than 130 tree trimming crews.

Great progress was made since 6 am Wednesday, with about 50,000 customers restored in the last 24 hours. In total, over 200,000 customers have been restored since Sunday. The remaining outages are from Manchester south to Nashua, on along the I-93 and Route 3 corridors. Damage in the area is described as extensive, with trees, limbs and branches blocking roadways and badly damaging electrical wires and equipment.

The emphasis on Thursday will be on redeploying crews as areas are cleared up, in order to restore power as quickly as possible. Besides the challenge of large repairs impacting multiple customers, there are hundreds of individual service wires (from the street pole to a home) that will also be addressed.

"Many communities that have customers without power will be wrapped up today, but a few communities will not be at 99% restored until Friday" said Dave Bickford, PSNH's Director of Customer Operations. "With the addition of our two satellite offices in Hudson and Amherst, we have made major advances in the areas most impacted by this damaging storm" Bickford added. 

Generator Safety! 

PSNH reminds customers that it is critical for their safety and the safety of line workers that are repairing the electrical system to ensure that portable generators are installed correctly. To protect line workers, a generator should only be attached to the house wiring, and completely isolated from the utility supply. Without proper isolation, power from the generator can create a dangerous back feed into the system and pose a serious safety risk to line workers. 

Town-By-Town Restoration Projections

An updated list of projected times for when communities will have 95 percent and 99 percent of their customers' power restored will be updated overnight and posted at about 6:00 a.m. Thursday. (http://psnh.info/snowtobertownlist) This report does not provide restoration times to specific residences, but rather estimated restoration times on a town-by-town basis.

Another Historic Storm

This "Snowtober" ranks as PSNH's third largest outage in its history, following the December 2008 Ice Storm and February 2010 Wind Storm. Snowfall from the storm was the most recorded in New Hampshire during October in 140 years. With most trees still holding their foliage, the one to two feet of wet, heavy snow brought limbs and branches down onto wires and equipment in some cases taking those wires to the ground and occasionally breaking utility poles in the process. The heavy wet snow damaged a record number of over 90 main circuits out of 178.  These main lines serve as the electric system's backbone and feed hundreds of secondary circuits spread throughout the state.

For the most recent information on PSNH's  power restoration efforts, please follow @psnh on Twitter: http://twitter.com/psnh or on facebook, YouTube, Flickr, and psnh.com

Important Safety Reminder

o Customers are urged to stay clear of fallen or sagging power lines and to treat all lines as if they are 'live.' They should also stay away from downed trees or poles, and report this situation immediately to PSNH at 1-800-662-7764.

o In addition, PSNH reminds customers that it is critical for their safety and the safety of line workers who will repair the electrical system that portable generators be installed correctly. To protect line workers, a generator should only be attached to the house wiring and completely isolated from the utility supply. Without proper isolation, power that is being generated through the home could also feed into the PSNH electrical system, causing an unsafe situation for both line workers and neighbors. Please take care when installing a portable generator.  For more generator safety tips, visit psnh.com.