Friday 9:30 a.m.
Marblehead Light crews — with help from public power partners — rebuild over a quarter mile of overhead circuit in just 10 hours on Thursday into Friday morning, restoring power to about 1,000 customers.
“Most outages were due to high loads stressing weak points or design limits of system equipment, with heat being a contributing factor,” according to Marblehead Municipal Light Department General Manager Jon Blain.
“It was a long day (and night), but crews worked nonstop to restore power to all Marblehead customers by about 3 a.m. this morning. We are very thankful to our partners in town, especially Marblehead Police and Fire, who supported our response throughout the day and activated resources for the community, like the cooling shelter at Brown School.”
Blain added: “There are plenty of lessons learned from today for us to review at MMLD, but for now, we are happy to successfully close out this event and thankful for the support we received.”
Friday 4 a.m.
Marblehead Municipal Light Department announced on social media that all power has been restored, about 12 hours after a major power outage hit the town, impacting approximately 1,000 customers. Temperatures hovered in the 80s overnight.
Here is MMLD’s Facebook post at 4 a.m.
“Repairs took longer than expected but all customers should now be restored. Most outages were due to high loads stressing weak points or design limits of system equipment, with heat being a contributing factor. We know it was a long, hot day for many of our customers and we appreciate your patience and support. Thank you to our community partners, including Marblehead Police Department and Marblehead Fire Department, for activating the cooling shelter at the Brown School and supporting our emergency response throughout the day. Also, a big kudos to our public power neighbors (Braintree Electric Light Department, Groveland Municipal Light Department, Littleton Electric Light and Water Department, Kennebunk Power and Light who answered our call for mutual aid and worked by our side to restore power.”
MMLD posted these photos of crews working to restore power. The crews worked more than 18 hours straight.
***
Thursday, 9:35 p.m.
Marblehead Municipal Light Department shared an update on social media at 9:35 p.m.
“Our crews have been in the field since 3:30 p.m. and are working as quickly and safely as possible to restore power to all affected customers. The majority of remaining outages are on the Lafayette circuit, which we currently anticipate restoring by midnight. If you are in one of the outlying outage areas, please know we have not forgotten you. As soon as work on the Lafayette circuit is complete, crews will move directly to those remaining outages.”
The post continues: “We are incredibly grateful to our line crews, customer service team and the mutual aid crews from neighboring communities who answered the call and are working alongside us to restore service as quickly as possible. Thank you for your patience and support.”
****
An update from Marblehead Municipal Light Department, posted to social media:
“Power has now been restored to all customers served by the Humphrey circuits. Approximately 500 customers on the Lafayette circuit and its subsidiaries remain without power. Restoring this circuit will take additional time, as crews must rebuild approximately 1,500 feet of damaged line. If you do not have power at this time, this is likely the main circuit effecting it.”
The update continued: “There are currently six trucks on site, working as quickly and safely as possible to complete repairs. At this time, we anticipate power will be restored to remaining customers before midnight. Thank you for your continued patience and understanding as our crews work to restore service to the remaining customers.”
Earlier, MMLD posted: “We have requested mutual aid from neighboring utilities, and all available crews are working as quickly and safely as possible to restore service.”
Fire Chief Jason Gilliland urged anyone who needs to, to come to an emergency cooling center at the Brown School, where chairs and cots are set up and there is air conditioning.
This story was updated as new information became available.
