The following statement was issued this evening, Sept. 16, 2023, at approximately 7 p.m., by CMP spokesperson Jon Breed:

“We are currently responding to damage in the wake of Hurricane Lee, and our crews are working to restore power to those impacted by this storm. The vast majority of outages today are the result of fallen branches and trees. Despite the challenging conditions, we have made great progress by restoring 84,000 customers of the 126,000 impacted as of early this evening. Crews continue to address public safety issues as the storm exits our service territory, and when wind conditions allow, we will restore power to our remaining customers.

More than 500 power line crews and 300 vegetation management crews will continue to work around the clock assessing damage and then making repairs until all customers are safely restored. Some repairs may be swift with only a small portion of our lines impacted; others may require multiple new utility poles to be installed. After line crews are assigned to damaged areas, estimated restoration times will be provided.

Please remember to stay away from any downed wires. If you see something you believe is unsafe related to our power lines or equipment, please contact us immediately by calling our Outage Reporting Line at 800.696.1000.”