Power is out for about 2,800 PSNH customers in seven Sullivan County towns, the majority in Newport, after a pole was downed in a remote off-road location.
PSNH spokesman Mike Skelton said power is not expected to be restored until 6 o'clock Tuesday night.
He did not know how the pole was broken and said special equipment had to be brought in so crews could get to the remote site located in an off-road area in the transmission right-of-way.
When the pole broke, Skelton said it "de-energized" the line, cutting power to parts of Newport, Croydon, Goshen, and Unity. A handful of customers also were affected in Lempster, Newbury and Sunapee.
About 2,300 of PSNH's 3,300 customers in Newbury have no power, Skelton said.
All three NNewport schools – Newport Middle High School, Towle School and Richard School – closed at 12:30 p.m. because of the power outage, according to police dispatch.
(Union Leader correspondent Meghan Pierce contributed to this report.)