Sunshine is on the way.
Friday was windy and rainy, and strong gusts knocked out power to nearly 12,000 Central Maine Power customers Friday morning. Power was restored to most areas within a few hours, and all but 300 or so had power again by 8:30 p.m.
“We talked to meteorologists who were clocking winds around 50 mph in some areas. That’s what has contributed to some of the outages we’ve seen along the coast and in the Lewiston area,” CMP spokesperson Jon Breed said.
A CMP crew works to restore power on the Gray Road in Cumberland in Dec. 2023. Bonnie Washuk/Staff Writer
CMP had been tracking the storm for several days and called in extra crews starting overnight, he said. The company also put in-state contractors on standby Thursday, but has not yet needed to use them.
Crews were able to start fixing damage even with the strong wind gusts, but some crews may had to pause their work until the winds lessened, Breed said. The company also was using its energy control system in Augusta to redirect power to get some customers back online before repairs are made later in the day, he said.
The wind was dying down Friday afternoon. A wind advisory for coastal Cumberland, Sagadahoc, Lincoln, Knox and Waldo counties expired at 4 p.m. A gale warning also alerted coastal areas to the potential for gusts up to 45 knots and seas of 8 to 13 feet along the Maine coast. That warning was scheduled to expire 11 p.m. Friday.
The rain also was petering out after flash flood warnings and flood advisories. A flood warning remained in place until 7 p.m. for the western part of the state, and the National Weather Service in Gray warned of possible flooding along the Swift and Saco rivers.
Meteorologist Derek Schroeter said most areas got 1 to 2 inches of rain on Thursday and Friday. The weather service received some reports of water over roads in the western mountains and foothills.
“For the most part, the bulk of the precipitation has exited the area, so those flood warnings and advisories are up for continued runoff from the rainfall that was received,” he said on Friday afternoon. “We were able to melt about 3 to 4 inches of liquid out of the snowpack in the mountains.”
In Portland, March saw 11 inches of rain, which made it the second wettest March on record. In 2010, the city recorded 11.24 inches of rain. Since the beginning of the year, Portland has received 21.01 inches of rain and melted snow, which Schroeter said was more than 8 inches above normal.
“It’s just been very wet for us up here,” he said.
Still, the forecast is looking up. Saturday has a chance of showers, Schroeter said, but the day should be mostly dry with “peeks of sun.”
“Sunday is looking warmer and dry with some sunshine,” he added.
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