UPDATE: Power outages reported as superstorm Sandy rolls into New Hampshire
Public Safety Commissioner Keith Flynn holds a news conference on at the emergency operations center on Monday, Oct. 29, 2012 in Waterbury, Vt. Vermont electric utilities are seeing the first scattered power outages as the state braces for the arrival of Hurricane Sandy. Hurricane Sandy continued on its path Monday, as the storm forced the shutdown of mass transit, schools and financial markets, sending coastal residents fleeing, and threatening a dangerous mix of high winds and soaking rain. (AP Photo/Toby Talbot) Purchase photo reprints at PhotoExtra »
Snow covers Mountain Lake Road near Mountain Lake Hotel at an elevation of 4000 feet in Giles County Va. on Monday, Oct. 29, 2012. About three inches of snow was measured in a snow gauge at the hotel, the first snow fall of the year, as result of Hurricane Sandy, according to the The Roanoke Times. (AP Photo/The Roanoke Times, Matt Gentry) Purchase photo reprints at PhotoExtra »
Workers staff the state emergency operations center on Monday, Oct. 29, 2012 in Waterbury, Vt. Vermont electric utilities are seeing the first scattered power outages as the state braces for the arrival of Hurricane Sandy. Hurricane Sandy continued on its path Monday, as the storm forced the shutdown of mass transit, schools and financial markets, sending coastal residents fleeing, and threatening a dangerous mix of high winds and soaking rain. (AP Photo/Toby Talbot) Purchase photo reprints at PhotoExtra »
3:16 p.m.: It may feel calm in Concord right now, but Hurricane Sandy’s winds will soon be at their worst in New Hampshire, according to the National Weather Service.
Gusts are expected to pick up between 4 p.m. and midnight, possibly reaching 60 to 65 mph on the Seacoast, said Tom Hawley, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Gray, Maine.
Hawley doesn’t expect Concord will see those speeds, but “probably gusts around 50 (mph) is possible,” he said.
Across the state, 1 to 3 inches of rain are expected, with the most rain predicted just south of the White Mountains. “Right at the moment, it doesn’t appear there will be a big flood threat,” Hawley said.
The National Weather Service has received reports of 25,000 people without power in New Hampshire, Hawley said.
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2:36 p.m.: State courts will close at 3 p.m. today due to the storm, judicial officials said.
The courts, along with the Administrative Office of the Courts and Trial Court Center, are closing in accordance with Gov. John Lynch’s declaration of a state of emergency, said spokeswoman Laura Kiernan.
For updates as the storm progresses, visit the judicial branch’s website.
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2:20 p.m.: Nearly all of PSNH’s customers in Bow are currently without power as outages from the storm begin to roll in this afternoon.
Bow is primarily serviced by Unitil, but 97 of the 99 PSNH customers there are currently in the dark, according to the company’s outage map. About a dozen Unitil customers there are also without power, according to the company’s website.
Unitil is currently reporting about 700 outages in the Capital Region, with Loudon, Chichester and Canterbury being a few of the most affected towns. In Chichester and Loudon more than 30 percent of Unitil customers are without power. In Canterbury, about 13 percent or 80 of the company’s customers don’t have power.
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