BRUNSWICK

Midcoast drivers contended with their first snow storm Monday, resulting in multiple crashes and even some power outages.

The flakes started falling at around 10 a.m. Brunswick police had responded to a half-dozen crashes by 1 p.m. Monday that didn’t involve any injury. At around 3 p.m. as snow continued to fall, crashes continued again first along Route 1, followed by at least two reported on River Road within minutes of each other.

In Topsham, a vehicle hit a telephone pole at 1:17 p.m. which created a power outage.

Gail Rice, spokeswoman for Central Maine Power Co., said approximately 1,000 customers in Topsham, Bowdoinham and primarily Bowdoin were without power as a result. There were 842 Bowdoin customers without power according to the company’s website. As of 3 p.m., Rice said the phone company still wasn’t on scene and she expected the power outage would continue for a couple more hours.

There were also small outages in Freeport and Phippsburg, she said.

“Obviously we’re encouraging people to clean their windows and allow additional travel time,” Brunswick Police Cmdr. Tom Garrepy said.

Motorists should make sure they have good tires — preferably snow tires or good all-season tires. They should make sure their mirrors and headlights are cleaned off as well before venturing out on the roads in snow, and allow a larger following distance in case the car in front of them stops.

“Drive defensively; slow down,” Garrepy said.

John Foster, Brunswick’s public works director, said their operation was running as usual. Crews had already put on the plow gear on the trucks a while ago and tested the gear and sanders to get everything in working order. Most all of the equipment was ready to go Monday morning.

Foster said Monday afternoon the storm was lingering longer than he expected based on the forecast. The trucks had scraped roads a little bit and lightly sanded and salted some of the major roads to make sure they were safe. There were some slippery spots, but most people were taking it easy and leaving themselves time to travel safely.

Brunswick Public Works also put out the sidewalk tractors to clear sidewalks in the highly used areas. Foster was waiting to see if the temperatures would drop, creating ice conditions to address, but said crews would keep at it until everything is done.

It’s a good first storm, he said, because it took place in daylight hours, and sunny weather is forecast for Tuesday. As we head into winter weather, he reminded motorists to drive carefully and be patient with public works crews.

“We’ll get there,” he said.

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