Morning Power Outage Covers Most of Hill

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By Carol McCracken  (Post # 333)

Most of the Hill lost its power this morning. The power was out for about three hours.  All but Atlantic,  St. Lawrence Streets up to Walnut Street and Washington Avenue lost their power, said Bob Taylor, a veteran Central Maine Power troubleshooter and lineman for the company.   Part of Sheridan Street as well did not lose its power. 

The equipment failure happened at a pole near the corner of Congress and India Streets – near the Family Practice Center.  The power failure was not weather related.  The problem involved wiring.  There are lots of aluminium conductors and they don’t mix well with salt air – leaving vulnerable places in the wiring.  Copper is stronger, but far too expensive to be used for this purpose.  Power was back on just before  1:00 pm.

Taylor said:  “The biggest problem we have in town is with squirrels.  They get on a transformer and wag their tails in the wrong place.  It happens too often.  CMP puts squirrel guards on the transformers, but there are lots of places they can get into.”

The power failure number for CMP to call is 1 800 696-1000,