Mainers mopped up Wednesday after a band of powerful storms packing high winds, tennis-ball sized hail, lightning, and flash floods hammered the state.

At the storms’ peak Tuesday evening, roughly 5,700 Central Maine Power customers and nearly 2,000 customers in Emera Maine’s service area were without electricity.

By 8 a.m. Wednesday, Central Maine Power reported outages were down to 250, with most of those – 189 – in York County. Emera Maine still had about 400 outages in the Bangor area.

Margaret Curtis with the National Weather Service in Gray said the storm brought large hail to areas across York and Cumberland counties, including in Portland where it is rarely seen because air coming off the ocean is cooler and more stable than the air that typically generates hail. The largest hail – 2.5 inches in diameter – was reported in Waterboro. There also were multiple reports of 2-inch hail in York and 1-inch hail in Portland and surrounding suburbs.

“That’s like eggs falling from the sky,” Curtis said of the 2-inch hail. “That only happens once or twice a year.”

Strong winds caused trees and branches to come down on wires in Standish, Limington and Gorham, Curtis said.

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Watch video from Andy Stone of Portland

Kittery officials announced Wednesday that the Kittery Resource Recovery Center – that’s the town dump – will be open today and Saturday and will not charge residents who drop off branches and brush that fell during the storm.

Curtis said there is a possibility of scattered thunderstorms Wednesday, primarily in the northern part of the state. The storms are not expected to be as intense as Tuesday.

Curtis said she encourages people to be aware when the National Weather Service issues severe thunderstorm warnings because of the potential for danger.

“We encourage people to have plans to get inside away from lightning and any intense storms,” she said.

This story will be updated.


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