HYANNIS —Joe Nolan, president and CEO of Eversource, said he expects power to be restored to 98% of its Cape Cod customers by 6 p.m. Saturday.
Halloween will go on, he added during an 11 a.m. Thursday press conference at the Falmouth Mall.
Areas of the Cape have been broken into 10 different zones, and crews in the different zones are competing against each other to see who can restore power the fastest, Nolan said.
The utility brought in more than 1,500 line and tree crews to help clear roads and downed trees, and restore power after the strong nor'easter barreled across the Cape Tuesday and Wednesday,William Hinkle, media relations manager for Eversource,said.
Another 1,000 support staffareworking as damage assessors, storm engineers and troubleshooters, he said. Those workers are sent out todetermine the needs and equipment necessary to restore power in certain areas.
Eversource put up 4,000 crews on Wednesday and expect to provide lodging for 5,000 on Thursday. Beds are being set up at Joint Base Cape Cod to accommodate the army of helpers.
Now open:Cape Cod restaurants that are open for business in the wake of the nor'easter outages
Hazardous winds continued throughout Wednesdayand into the night, keeping crews on the ground. Wind gusts over 30 mph are considered too dangerous for aerial crews to work, Hinkle said.
Two crew members were injured when tree branches snapped, came back and hit them, Nolan said, adding that they are all right.
A town of Barnstable post on Facebookreported information from Eversource that saidthe initial damage as of Thursday morning includedmore than 120 blocked roads, 140 broken poles and more than 30 miles of downed electrical wire.
Nearly 640 trees — so far — needed to be cleared, the post said.
Cape Cod power restored to areas of largest outages first
The first step is to restore power where they can, prioritizing public safety, hospitals, andschools. The largest outages are generally restored first, Hinkle said. He expects the restoration efforts to intensify Friday.
As of 12:15 p.m. Thursday, the energy company hadrestored power to more than 240,000 Eversource customerssince the storm began, according to an Eversource press release. Crewswill continue working around the clock until theapproximately 178,000 customers in Massachusetts who remain without powerare restored.
There is an "extraordinary amount of damage on the Cape, it exceeds other places," Nolan said. He rated the storm in the top 5 of what he has seen.
The energy company has set up four staging areasat Kingston Collection, Cape Cod Mall, a MASS DOT facility in Orleans and theFalmouth Mall.
'Bomb cyclone':topples trees and cuts power to almost all of Cape Cod and Islands
An army of trucks wasparked at the Target parking lot at the Cape Cod Mall on Thursday morning. Utility workers had been called in from across North Americato help restore power to theCape and Islands.
Trucks from Arizona to Quebec,Canada — including Asplundh, Altec, Holland, Dagle Electric Construction,Besco,andSparkings— were parked in the lot along with crews withMotor City Electricfrom Detroit, Michigan.Paragould Electricsent trucks and personnelfrom Arizona.
Daniel Dumas, the general manager for Gagnon Constructionbased inMontreal, was in charge of 164 people and 70 trucks. The crew from Canada came in at midnight and were up at 5 a.m., Dumas said.
“It’s big, but we’ve seen worse,” he saidabout the damage that caused outagesacross the Cape.
Eversource mobile response trailers and trucks loaded with equipment waited in staging areas.Trucks were lined up toload supplies that included everything fromtransformersandcross braces for telephone polestoservice cables, mobile lights and generators.
“We never know when we’ll finish,” Dumas said. “We’ll stay till we finish.”
Each Cape townhas anEversource liaison
Eversource liaisons have been assigned to each Cape town to prioritize restoration efforts. Orleans Fire Chief Geof Deering said he’s had conversations on a day-to-day basis with his liaison.
“They’ve been very communicative and very responsive since yesterday afternoon,” he said.
A bevy of town officials speak often and tabulate locations where crews are needed to clear roads, remove downed trees and wires, and restore power, Deering said.
“We’re constantly having those conversations,” he said.
Sandwich Fire Chief John Burke said town officials have been working directly with their liaison on updating priority restoration work. Critical infrastructure, such as police andfirestations, grocery stores, Spaulding Rehabilitation Center, and schools are identified annually in the event of emergencies such as this.
The liaisons have their own computers and telephones and operatea "mini-hub"program that gets them into the operating system for Eversource. They can assign tickets for priority jobs, and divert crews from jobs if an emergency happens to come up.
Cape Cod cellphone service improved
OpenCape had good news for its customersThursday: it has restored service from the bulk of its fiber optic network damaged during the nor’easter.
The nonprofit tech company, based in West Barnstable, provides fiber connections for AT&T on the Cape and connects about 70 cellphone towers using physical fiber connections. It also provides broadband internet services to businesses and government entities.
From the National Weather Service:Here are the wind gusts reported on Cape Cod during the storm
The storm cut fibers in Bridgewater and in Centerville, and repairs were delayed since crews were unable to reach the towers while high winds persisted.
While OpenCape’s services are operating, many of its customers are still waiting for power to be restored, the company said.
Managing the aftermath of the storm
Provincetown DPW Director Richard Waldo said the most difficult parts of managing the storm's aftermath is keeping the command center up, the police facility in operation, and the water and wastewater treatment plants operating.
"Those are really the difficult things with these prolonged outages,” Waldo said.
Tracking the outages:Nor'easter triggers power outages across eastern, southern Massachusetts. Here's where
Nantucket escaped the worst of the storm according to Fire Chief Steve Murphy. There was some flooding, as with any winter storm, he said, but itwasn't as severe as the damage on the Cape.
"We lost eight to 10 trees, but it was normal otherwise," Murphy said.
Halloween on Cape Cod
During his press conference, Nolan hada message for little ghosts and goblins.
"I also want to tell all the trick or treaters that they should not worry.Halloween will go on, we're not canceling Halloween, not on my watch.”
Staff Writers Kathi Scrizzi Driscoll and Anne Brennan contributed to this report.
Contact Denise Coffey at dcoffey@capecodonline.com. Follow her on Twitter: @DeniseCoffeyCCT.
