More than 61,000 Central Maine Power and Versant Power customers were still without electricity Monday afternoon after a wintry storm dropped more than a foot of snow across much of western and central Maine over the weekend.
The storm produced gusts of up to 40 mph, according to the National Weather Service, knocking out power to thousands of people in Androscoggin, Cumberland, Franklin, Kennebec, Oxford, Somerset and York counties.
CMP reported 59,000 customers without power as of 3 p.m. Monday, while Versant, which serves customers in northern and eastern Maine, was reporting about 3,200 customers without service.
Coastal areas saw less precipitation than inland and mountainous regions. Portland accumulated only a little over 2 inches of snow, according to NWS data. Sunday River Resort, in the Oxford County town of Newry, reported up to a foot of snow overnight, making for a snow depth of 18 inches on the mountain.
“Last night, Mother Nature served up a fresh snowstorm, but it came with a side order of wind that we did not order,” resort officials said in their daily report for Sunday. “The snow started in upper elevations, delivering 10-12 inches of the goods, and wrapped up before dawn.”
About 233,000 CMP customers were impacted by the storm’s heavy, wet snow, rain and strong winds, the company said in a news release Sunday night. Power had been restored to about 148,000 of those customers and the company said it planned to continue restoration efforts through the evening.
Still, some customers are not expected to see electricity restored until Wednesday. “While this is a multi-day event, many customers will have their power return tonight, tomorrow, and Tuesday,” said David Flanagan, CMP’s executive chairman, in the release. “We have more crews from Hydro Quebec and Green Mt. Electric (in Vermont) on their way to further strengthen our restoration team. This will allow us to redeploy crews as needed to the hardest hit areas within our territory as restoration continues.”
Among the areas with the most severe outage numbers Sunday night were Cumberland County, with 11,400 without power; Franklin County, 11,300; Kennebec County, 9,800; Oxford County, 15,000; and Somerset County, 12,400. York County had about 7,300 customers without power.
Electricity is expected to be restored to all customers in northern Cumberland County by Wednesday night and southern Cumberland County by Monday night. Androscoggin and Franklin counties are also expected to see full restoration by Wednesday night, while Somerset, Kennebec and Piscataquis counties are expected to see full restoration by Tuesday night.
Many customers are likely to have power restored before those days, the company said, and specific towns may be restored sooner.
Meanwhile, Versant Power, which serves about 160,000 customers in eastern and northern Maine, was reporting fewer than 4,000 customers without electricity as of 10:30 p.m. The company said in a tweet Sunday night that more than 20,000 customers were affected by the storm and that some remaining customers in Penobscot and Piscataquis counties should prepare to be without electricity overnight.
A hazardous weather outlook from the National Weather Service was also expected to remain in place overnight in parts of Aroostook, Somerset, Penobscot and Piscataquis counties. Areas of blowing and drifting snow were expected Sunday night with poor visibility at times. Conditions were expected to improve as the wind diminishes overnight and light snow tapers to scattered snow showers and flurries.
The Maine Turnpike was largely clear by 8:30 a.m. Sunday, when officials returned the highway to its posted speeds. Speed limits had been reduced to 45 mph along the corridor from New Hampshire to Augusta because of snow.
CANCELLED – Speeds have been restored to the normal posted limits for the entire length. https://t.co/j1S1utWI2k
— Maine Turnpike (@MaineTurnpike) December 6, 2020
Several Concord Coach Lines bus trips were canceled on Sunday. Those included all southbound departures from Bangor before 11 a.m., and southbound departures from Portland before 8 a.m.
The earliest northbound trips from Boston were 11:30 a.m. from Logan International Airport and noon from South Station.
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