Several thousand Maine residents were still without power Saturday night following a strong windstorm that knocked down trees and power lines around the state.

Roughly 36,000 electricity customers lost power during the storm that buffeted Maine late Friday and early Saturday. But by 7:45 p.m. Saturday, Central Maine Power was reporting just 3,396 outages remaining, while Emera Maine had just 50 customers still without power. Franklin and Somerset counties accounted for more than 2,500 of the remaining outages.

CMP officials had said earlier Saturday that the company was bringing in additional crews to restore power.

A fast-moving front caused the high winds that toppled trees and power lines across the state early Saturday. Wind gusts reached 52 mph at Sanford Regional Airport at 2:30 a.m., 48 mph at the Portland International Jetport at 3:17 a.m., 52 mph in Rumford at 4:44 a.m., and 62 mph in Benton at 7 a.m., according to the National Weather Service.

“The winds lasted for about four to five hours and have been dying down ever since,” said Tom Hawley, a meteorologist at the weather service’s station in Gray.

Atop New Hampshire’s Mount Washington, monitors recorded a peak wind gust of 130 mph just after midnight – the highest winds for a date in May since 1994, according to a Twitter post from staffers at the Mount Washington Observatory. The mountaintop was still being buffeted by 100-plus-mph gusts and sustained winds of 88 mph later Saturday morning.

Hawley said Oxford County also saw thunderstorms from Fryeburg northward, unlike other parts of the state.

County emergency dispatchers said there were no serious accidents despite the damage to trees and power lines.


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