Emergency Electrician in Harpswell, Maine

When a storm hits Harpswell, the electrical damage often shows up on the outside of the house. A gust or a falling limb drags on the overhead drop until the mast buckles, the weatherhead pulls off the gable or the meter base splits, and on waterfront homes the salt that has worked into that equipment for years makes it more likely to give way. During the December 2023 storm, the town fire administrator described part of Harpswell Neck Road as completely impassable from downed trees and power lines, which is the kind of night when these calls come in.

The dividing line matters on these calls. CMP answers for the drop wire and the meter, while the mast, the meter base, the service cable and all the wiring inside are the owner's; until that equipment is repaired and passes inspection, CMP leaves the house off even though the road circuit is live again. Goodnow Electric handles emergencies around the clock, makes the damage safe, completes the repair and its permit, and schedules CMP's reconnection. Indoor emergencies look like a smell of burning, an outlet that is hot or arcing, a panel gone dead or a main that trips straight back off.

Start with safety: a line on the ground may be live even when it looks dead, so keep everyone back and phone CMP or 911. If floodwater or storm surge has reached outlets, a panel or a basement generator transfer switch, leave the power off until the equipment has been inspected, since salt water damages electrical parts in ways that are not always visible. Smoke or blackened plastic at the breaker box is a fire department call, made from outside the house. The Town Office has served as a warming and charging center during long outages, a useful fallback while repairs are arranged. Once the storm has passed, it is worth having a licensed electrician look over any mast, meter or service cable that took a hit, even if the lights came back on, because a cracked fitting lets water into the meter base and the problem shows up in the next storm instead.