Powerful winds and heavy downpours left more than 25,000 Central Maine Power customers without power late Sunday after a driving rainstorm pummeled the southern part of the state before drenching northern Maine.

Just before 10:30 p.m., CMP outages included 2,116 customers in Cumberland County (down from 6,430 earlier in the evening), 7,789 in Kennebec County and 1,864 in Lincoln County. Sagadahoc County was also hit hard, with 3,572 outages reported.

Forecasters predicted the storm would slowly move north, reaching the Canadian border by midnight. As it moved away from the coast, an increase in power outage numbers reflected its course. At the storm’s peak around 5 p.m., the town of York had 1,181 reported outages. But by 9 p.m., everyone’s power had been restored there.

CMP tweeted that crews would work through the night trying to restore power, and that anyone whose power did not come back Sunday night should have it back Monday. CMP also tweeted that persistent winds were hindering progress in some areas.

Emera Maine, which serves Bangor and the northern part of the state, started to feel the brunt of the storm as it moved into that area Sunday night.

A total of 28,803 Emera Maine customers were without power as of 10:40 p.m. Some of the hardest-hit communities were Blue Hill, Brooklin, Sedgwick, Deer Isle and Stonington, according to Emera Maine spokesman Bob Potts. As of 6:45 a.m. Monday, that number had fallen to Emera Maine reported 14,695, with largest number along the coast including 3,106 in Stonington and Deer Isle,  Little Deer Isle and Sunset, and Little Deer Isle and Sunset, and 759 in the Ellsworth/Trenton area.

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Tom Hawley, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said the storm was expected to move out of the state late Sunday. Before it leaves, though, some parts of Maine could experience thunderstorms.

Hawley said that Sunday’s rainstorm had a tropical edge to it, bringing a high temperature of 52 degrees to Portland along with 2.09 inches of rain. That amount did not even come close to the rainfall record in Portland for the date, which was 3.56 inches on Jan. 10, 1977.

Other towns in southern and coastal Maine got soaked as well. Hawley said Standish received 2.48 inches of rain; Gorham, 2.4 inches; Hollis, 2.4 inches; Wells, 1.85 inches; and Rockport, 2.77 inches.

Hawley said the storm produced high winds and gusts that knocked out power to thousands of CMP customers.

At 5 p.m. Sunday night, 2,644 customers were without power in Brunswick, but only 787 as of 10:45 p.m. Another 3,369 customers in Harpswell lost electricity after trees fell on power lines in the area, but the number had fallen to 298 by late Sunday.

Even so, as of 6:32 a.m. Monday morning, there were still more than 1,500 without power in Cumberland County, according to CMP’s website, thousands more throughout the utility’s southern and coastal  service areas. Knox County had the most outages with 2,255,  Waldo had 1,898, Cumberland County had 1,588,  and Hancock had 1,243.

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There were multiple reports of trees and wires falling into Maine roads, including in North Yarmouth, Thomaston, Lisbon, Woolwich, Rumford and Brunswick. Several roads in North Yarmouth were closed after they flooded.

Hawley said the weather service issued flood warnings Sunday night for the Presumpscot River in Westbrook and the Kennebec River in downtown Augusta and Skowhegan. A warning means that the rivers have already exceeded flood stage, but Hawley said the flooding was not threatening any homes or private property.

Minor street flooding was reported across the state. Milliken Road, Memorial Highway and West Pownal Road in North Yarmouth had to be closed Sunday afternoon because of flooding.

In Westbrook, police shut down Cumberland Street by the Sappi mill around 4 p.m. after a low-lying area flooded the road. The street reopened after a couple of hours.

In Portland, Lt. Gary Hutcheson said police had not received any reports of street flooding. Hutcheson said Marginal Way has flooded in the past during periods of heavy rain and high tides. The next high tide in Portland was due at 11:30 p.m. Sunday.

At least one traffic accident was blamed on the storm.

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Steve McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety, said Victor Bassett, 44, of Greenbush lost control of his vehicle in heavy rain Sunday afternoon and struck a utility pole along Route 9 in Amherst. Bassett suffered minor injuries, and was taken to Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor. Three passengers were not injured.

McCausland said the cause of the accident was weather-related. Route 9 had to be closed for more than two hours so that utility crews could repair the damage. The road reopened around 5:30 p.m.

The weather service issued a wind advisory for southern and coastal Maine on Sunday afternoon that remained in effect through part of Sunday night. An advisory means that sustained winds of 35 mph or gusts up to 57 mph are expected.

According to the office’s Facebook page, the highest wind gusts were recorded in Portland, Wiscasset and Rockland. Portland experienced gusts of 47 mph, Wiscasset saw 35 mph, and Rockland had 33 mph wind gusts.

Lewiston firefighters had to evacuate an eight-unit apartment building at 184 Randall Road on Sunday night after a tenant reported that several basement pipes had burst and water was flowing into the cellar. An inspection revealed that the concrete foundation wall had buckled inward by more than a foot, placing the building in structural danger.

Capt. Paul Fournier said a buildup of water caused by Sunday’s storm caused the wall to buckle. The tenants all had family or friends with whom they could spend the night, but he said the landlord will have to pay for a significant amount of structural repairs before the building can be occupied again.

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The heavy rain intensified Sunday afternoon with rain blowing sideways. Travel along Interstate 295 in the Portland area was treacherous as torrential rains and strong wind made smaller vehicles sway.

Sunday’s storm was centered off Lake Ontario, dragging a line of warm air and rain into the region.

Monday should be sunny and much colder, with temperatures in the 30s in southern Maine.

The weather service is forecasting snow for Tuesday night.

Portland will see only 1 or 2 inches of snow, but Bangor and northern parts of the state could get more than 6 inches.

Staff Writer Beth Quimby contributed to this report.

 


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