As water came in through the ceiling of her mud room, 88-year-old Ceil Simpson decided it was time to evacuate her home on Richmond Terrace in Cape Elizabeth.

Although she was reluctant to leave her cat, Tasha, behind – the Red Cross doesn’t take pets – her daughters, who live in Kennebunk, had urged her to get out.

Simpson got a ride from a Cape Elizabeth police officer to the Red Cross shelter at Scarborough High School, where she was one of the first people to arrive, just before noon on Monday. Although she was happy to be safe from the storm, Simpson missed Tasha.

“I’m anxious to get back to her,” Simpson said.

Whether it was from water damage or lost power, nearly everyone in Scarborough, Cape Elizabeth and South Portland was affected by the Patriot’s Day northeaster. According to Eric Berry, dispatcher for the Scarborough Police Department, it would be easier to report on what didn’t happen in Scarborough during the storm than what did.

“This place is crazy,” Berry said in the late afternoon on Monday. “Most of the town is still closed,”

Kirk Apffel, of the National Weather Service in Gray, said the 13.3-foot tides on Monday morning were the seventh highest of all time in Maine. Flooding begins when the tides reach 12 feet, which occurred again on Monday night and Tuesday morning.

The worst winds came through on Monday morning, as well. The National Weather Service gauge, located at the Portland Jet Port, read the highest gust at 59 mph. The highest read reported, however, came from a call from a woman in Cape Elizabeth, who said she recorded a gust of wind at 8 a.m. on Monday at 81 mph, which Apffel called a “relatively reliable” number.

According to Central Maine Power, at the peak for outages, 127,581 customers were without service, and 104,000 remained powerless as of noon on Tuesday.

Flailing signs and scattered debris marked the roadways on Monday – at least the ones that were open. As of Tuesday afternoon, 18 roads were still closed in Scarborough, as were sections of six roads in Cape Elizabeth.

According to Joe Souliere, an employee at Eight Corners Pizza in Scarborough, the road closings around the market killed business on Monday and led to the decision to close at 2 p.m. – five hours earlier than normal.

“It’s been really dead,” Souliere said.

Jim Kachmar, a Red Cross volunteer who served as shelter manager at Scarborough High School, thought the difficulty of traveling could have been a reason so few people came to the shelter.

“I think the real story of the day is how limited access is,” Kachmar said.

According to Kachmar, three of the four routes by which Scarborough residents could normally get to the high school were impassable.

Despite the destruction, there were never more than about a dozen people taking advantage of the shelter at a time and only about five people spent Monday night there.

Kachmar said he thinks many more people had to leave their homes, but they probably made other arrangements, like staying with family and friends.

“People are resilient,” Kachmar said, “and people are proud and don’t want to ask for help.”

Though Simpson got to the shelter early, South Portland resident John Palanza stuck it out at his powerless, unheated home with hope that his utilities would kick back on by the afternoon.

However, at around 5 p.m., he arrived at the shelter and was one of the few to stay the night.

“I thought I couldn’t make it at home,” Palanza said, otherwise he would have stayed.

“I like being home,” he said, “I get TV privileges and I can have snacks anytime I want to. You just kind of feel like you’re free.”

Palanza particularly values that freedom now that he’s retired after 45 years as the owner of Uncle Andy’s bakery in South Portland. He was so dedicated to the shop that during a storm that blocked up the roadways about 50 years ago, when he was living Portland, he walked to South Portland in order to run his business.

Compared to that, Palanza said, this storm is “paradise” – even though his basement was flooded with nearly 2 feet of water, which shut down his furnace and may be cause for him to get it replaced.

“I don’t want to be a complainer or a crier,” Palanza said. “There are a lot of people in the same situation.”

Other residents had different ways of dealing with inconveniences of storm – by reveling in it.

Around noon on Monday, cars were coming steadily in and out of Two Lights State Park in Cape Elizabeth.

Teenagers and families suited up in rain gear headed down to check out the waves. Self-proclaimed storm chaser Daralyn Maxwell came down from Falmouth to take pictures of the ocean.

“It’s fun,” Maxwell said of getting in the middle of the storm. “Beats sitting at home and watching soap operas.”

Pat Becker, of Volunteers in Police Service, and Donna Gordon, of Community Emergency Response Team, check in local residents to a shelter set up at Scarborough High School during Monday’s nor’easter.A truck plows through a section of Route 77 in Cape Elizabeth that was submerged in water on Monday.A tree fell, completely blocking off Spring Street in Westbrook during the storm on Monday.The front yard of a property on Old Ocean House Road in Cape Elizabeth was completely under water on Monday.