BANGOR, Maine — Fewer than 5,400 Central Maine Power and Emera Maine customers remained without electricity early Friday evening in the wake of a snowstorm that disrupted service to more than 100,000.
Crews have been making rapid progress, however, as Central Maine Power reported about 8 p.m. that the number of customers without power had dropped to 5,372 — down from just under 50,000 on Thursday afternoon.
The majority of areas affected were expected to have power restored by late Friday.
The remaining outages, which are concentrated in southern and coastal areas, will be restored by Saturday evening, CMP spokeswoman Gail Rice said in an update early Friday evening.
More than 2,100 customers in Lincoln County remained without power Friday night, while York County checked in at just over 1,800 outages and Cumberland County at about 880.
More than 157,000 homes and businesses in CMP’s service area lost power at some point between Wednesday night and Thursday morning as the Thanksgiving Day storm rolled through Maine, Rice said. The peak number of outages reached nearly 104,000 around 8:30 a.m. on Thanksgiving Day.
At CMP’s request, Gov. Paul LePage issued a Declaration of Emergency late Wednesday night that allowed 60 utility crews from Canada to drive longer hours during the night to join the restoration effort during the day on Thursday, Rice said.
Meanwhile, most of Emera Maine’s remaining 21 outages were in Brooksville, Dedham, Gouldsboro and Hampden.
The company said favorable weather conditions and a full slate of field crews are allowing for significant progress in restoring electricity.
Those figures are down from a peak of just under 11,000 outages. Customers using alternate heat sources, such as generators, were urged to use caution.
Bangor Daily News writer Ryan McLaughlin contributed to this report.