Nearly 175,000 households and businesses had no power Tuesday morning, courtesy of Hurricane Sandy, down from an overnight peak of 200,000, according to the state Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.

James C. Van Dongen, public information officer, said the good news is New Hampshire missed the brunt of the storm in terms of flooding but "we are not out of the woods yet." Flooding could be an issue from the Lakes Region on north, he explained.

It's expected there will be some improvement in the number of power outages, now that the wind has died down and crews can begin repairs.

The outages, he said, are widely scattered across the state and mainly the result of downed trees and wires. Roads are also closed because of flooding and downed trees, including 35 state roads and 199 local roads. The numbers, he noted, will change hourly.

Manchester fared well, according to Police Lt. Maureen Tessier. Overnight, minor flooding was reported on Elm and South Willow streets, while Tuesday morning there was some flooding on Bridge Street, near Trinity High School, and Wellington Road, near the I-93 overpass.

The communities with the most outages, as of 7:30 a.m., include Derry with 7,305; Londonderry, 7.036; Manchester, 6,469; Windham, 4,865; Merrimack, 4,634, and Hudson, 4,428.

A few towns are completely in the dark including Atkinson, Grafton and Hampstead, where 4,335 businesses and residences are without power, that is, unless they have generators.


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New Hampshire residents who have lost power may be in the dark, or cold, for a long time.

High winds sidelined any power restoration efforts Monday afternoon, and power-company crews will concentrate first on clearing block roadways and removing trees from power lines, said Martin Murray, a spokesman for Public Service of New Hampshire. Work will be done based on a set of priorities.

• Public Safety. Murray said crews will initially work with state and local crews to clear roads. For utility crews, that means cutting downed power lines and clearing them from travel ways.

• Damage assessment. Power company officials will assess damage and prioritize efforts in order to restore the greatest amount of people in the shortest amount of time. Murray said customers who lose power should notify Public Service once about their status. That can be done online, via phone or by a mobile device.

• Tree work. Crews must clear downed trees, tree limbs and other obstructions before lines can be restrung.

• Restoring power. The concentration is on main lines first. “Restoration is done in a common sense and logical manner in order to restore the greatest amount of people in the shortest amount of time,” Murray said.

Unitil has crews on the way to New Hampshire from Michigan, Tennessee and Canada. PSNH has crews on their way from Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas.