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The Chill is Gone ... But Not for All in Storm's Aftermath

December 17, 2008 - SACO — Tuesday morning, Raymond Perreault walked out of the Saco emergency shelter with a pile of pillows and blankets in his arms and a big smile on his face.

Five days after a messy ice storm knocked out the electricity to his house on Lincoln Street, Central Maine Power crews had it turned back on. Finally, after four nights at an emergency shelter, he and his wife could go home.

"I am definitely glad it is back," said Perreault.

The Perreaults were among the 26,000 CMP customers who started Tuesday without power because last week's ice storm had taken them off the grid. By late afternoon, the number had dwindled to 8,586, as more than 600 repair workers concentrated their efforts in southern and coastal York County, where the bulk of the outages remained.

The storm knocked power out for 220,000 customers on Friday. Despite low weekend temperatures, days of power losses and slick roads, the storm created only inconvenience and damage – no deaths have been reported.

Emergency officials blamed four house fires in York County on live wires or generators that were placed too close to combustible items.

The impact of the weather ultimately pales next to the destruction caused by 1998's disastrous ice storm, which encased much of the state in a four-inch layer of ice, cutting off power to 600,000 customers for days and costing Central Maine Power $51 million in repairs alone.

In that storm, thousands of utility poles snapped, compared to 125 during last week's storm, said John Carroll, CMP spokesman. Costs estimates for the repairs are not yet available.

Now, emergency officials are nervously watching the weather again, said Mark Belserene, Maine Emergency Management Agency director of operations. A mix of snow and rain is expected today, and a snowstorm is possible Friday.

Belserene said emergency officials would keep the out-of-state repair crews on hand until they determine whether there is the potential for more outages.

Michael Sempa, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Gray, said Friday's storm could dump more than a half-foot of snow on the state. There are no more ice storms on the horizon, he said.

On Tuesday, emergency shelters in York County were emptying. At the Saco shelter, where up to 110 people stayed at the peak of the outages, only one family was there during the day. American Red Cross workers manning the shelter said a dozen people were at the shelter Monday night.

Meanwhile, those coping with a fifth day without power in their homes said they were growing impatient. David Marston said he was annoyed by the constant roar of the generator that kept the freezer, furnace and a couple of lights running at his Grant Road home.

"And there are three others around us," Marston said of the generators in his neighborhood.

The novelty of cooking meals on a grill in his yard wore off days ago; by Tuesday afternoon, he was ready for a hot shower, not a lukewarm sponge bath.

His parents, Pete and June Marston, both 85, live with him, and they too were getting fed up with the lack of progress on their street, where many homeowners were busy cutting downed tree limbs.

June Marston said that although her current situation is a big improvement over the historic storm of '98, when she and her husband had no generator and lived for six days huddled around a wood stove in their basement, she still has been anxiously watching for repair crews.

"I am ready to get back into the swing of things," she said.

By BETH QUIMBY, Staff Writer, Portland Press Herald, December 17, 2008


Lakes:
Regions: Sebago, Sanford


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