Updated: 126 Homes in Milford Waiting on Power

Updated, 8:25 a.m. Thursday: Only 126 homes are without power in Milford Thursday morning, according to National Grid.

Earlier Posts:

Updated, 2:45 p.m. Wednesday: Milford now has 840 customers of National Grid without power, with most of the power restored to the Whitewood Road area.

Earlier Wednesday:

Milford has 1,658 residential customers of National Grid waiting for power to be restored, two days after Hurricane Sandy. That's about 13 percent of the town.

Outages are scattered, but the largest affects neighborhoods off Whitewood Road, with 1,162 customers affected, according to the National Grid outage map.

The number of customers without power in Milford is second only to the city of Worcester, according to the Worcester County outages.

In Hopedale, 273 homes are without power; in Upton, the number of outages has dropped to 709 from overnight.

The website for outages and area information can be found here.

According to the website, the estimated restoration time for several of the outages is midnight Friday.

National Grid updated its assessments of restoration times about 11 p.m. Tuesday. In a press release, the company reported it had cut the number of outages in Masssachusetts in half since the storm.

"In the first 12 hours of restoring power in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, National Grid has restored service to half of the 237,000 Massachusetts customers who were affected by the storm’s damaging winds and torrential rains," the company stated, in the release. "Company officials expect to have three quarters of the remaining customers restored by midnight Thursday, with virtually all customers back online by midnight Friday."

Previous Posts:

Updated 3:27 p.m. Tuesday:

In Milford, 2,600 homes remain without power Tuesday as a result of Hurricane Sandy, according to the utility's website. Upton also is stricken, with much of the town still out.

The utility is now completing assessments of the affected areas. Once those assessments are finished, a process expected to be completed early Wednesday morning, individual outages will be assigned specific time frames for restoration.

Marcy Reed, president of National Grid in Massachusetts, in a conference call with media said until the assessments are completed, she couldn't say how long it will take for power to be completely restored. Once the assessments are done, the utility will share the information through media and on its website.

Priority for power restoration went to public safety complexes and hospitals. Overnight, National Grid restored power to eight hospitals in the state that lost power, she said.

National Grid has 2,400 people working in Massachusetts to restore power Tuesday, and good weather has allowed crews to make progress, the utility reported in the conference call.

The crews are working 16 hours on - 8 hours off and will continue until all customers are restored.

At its peak, Hurricane Sandy power losses totalled 237,000 customers in Massachusetts. The number as of 3 p.m. without power: 163,000.

Updated 10:45 a.m.:

Milford has 2,719 homes without power, according to National Grid. The outages include a large section off East Main Street. In a press conference at 10 a.m., Gov. Deval Patrick said the utility crews have been on the roads since daybreak, and will spend the next several hours assessing conditions. By noon, he said, the utility should have a better understanding of how long individual outages will take for restoration.

The number of homes without power is about 22 percent of the National Grid residential customers in Milford.

The website for outages and area information can be found here.

Original Post:

More than 2,400 customers of National Grid in Milford are without power early Tuesday morning, according to the utility's website.

That's about 20 percent of the customers in town. Upton and Hopedale, too, were hard hit with losses in the storm. Upton was almost completely out of power following Sandy, and about half of the customers in Hopedale have no power, according to the utility. 

Schools will be closed in the area Tuesday, partly as a result of the power outages.

More than 24 different outages were still being worked on in Milford as of 2 a.m.

National Grid has 200,000 customers without power in Massachusetts alone.

Customers can check the map, as well as see the local information by town in Worcester County, using a pull-down list.

In a press release issued Monday, National Grid reported crews from 31 states and Canada are working in Massachusetts and Rhode Island today. Supplemental crews will arrive once the storm has passed.

“We want customers to know that a storm of Sandy’s magnitude can cause extensive damage to our electricity and natural gas systems, so we have been urging them to prepare for outages potentially lasting for an extended period of time,” said Kathy Lyford, National Grid vice president of New England Operations. “We also want everyone to be safe during and after the storm, and we have been reaching out to customers to advise them how to do that.” 

National Grid crews will continue to work while it remains safe to do so Monday. During the height of the storm, in the interest of safety, restoration will be temporarily suspended until conditions again become safe. 

In New England, report power outages by calling toll-free at 1-800-465-1212 or by logging on to the website www.nationalgridus.com and clicking on the Outage Central page.

National Grid also advises:

• Refrain from calling 911 except for emergency situations 

• Consider all down wires to be live, keep away, and report them to National Grid immediately 

• Never use a generator indoors, always disconnect the main breaker when the generator is operating and be sure to read and follow all of the manufacturer’s operating and safety instructions 

• If your cellar floods, keep out of standing water 

• Check on elderly family members, neighbors and others who may need assistance during an outage period. 

• Call 211 for shelter information and other important storm help information