Northeast walloped by storms Maine wind gusts top 60 mph

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Utility crews scrambled Monday to restore power for customers across Maine, where homes and businesses continued to lose electricity as high winds toppled tree limbs.

Gusts topped 60 mph across the state Sunday night as the storm roared into the region with lightning, a deluge of rain, and unseasonably high temperatures.

The National Weather Service reported gusts of 65 mph in Gorham, 64 mph in Caribou, 63 mph in Eastport, 62 mph in Poland and 60 mph in Raymond.

Central Maine Power crews worked through the night to restore power to 25,000 customers, but the number actually grew as the strong winds continued to wreak havoc, said spokesman Clark Irwin.

As of 11 a.m. Monday, 45,000 customers were without electricity, with the largest concentrations in Brunswick and Rockland.

By early evening, CMP said it was making headway and the number of customers in the dark had dropped below 25,000. Crews planned to work into the night and Tuesday to try to get everyone back on line, the utility said.

A spokesman at Bangor Hydro-Electric Co. said Monday that high winds had caused branches to knock out small transmission lines across the service area, leaving thousands without power. Between 6,000 and 8,000 Bangor Hydro customers were without power, many of them in Hancock County, the spokesman said.

Repairs could stretch into late Tuesday as crews have to travel to many locations in Hancock County to repair downed lines.

In Washington County, nearly a third of Eastern Maine Electric Cooperative’s households were without power for most of the day Monday.

Charlie McAlpin, the co-op’s spokesman, said the problem began around 4 p.m. Sunday, but by 8 p.m. as high winds pounded the area, reports of outages increased. Crews worked throughout the night and by Monday power had been restored to many households.

As winds in the area began to diminish, McAlpin said, the co-op expected to have the rest of the households that had been without power all day Monday back on line late Monday night.

EMEC’s service area includes parts of Aroostook, Penobscot and Washington counties.

Scattered power outages in central Maine caused school cancellations at several schools, including Hartland’s two schools, St. Albans Consolidated School and Maine Central Institute in Pittsfield.

The disruptions were due to falling trees and limbs snagging power lines and breaking utility poles. Police and emergency dispatchers reported that public works and CMP crews were busy clearing trees and branches throughout Somerset County. No accidents were caused by dropping debris, and no property was reported damaged.

MCI has a large boarding population, and the campus and surrounding neighborhood were without power for more than 12 hours, according to Douglas Cummings, head of school. He said the dorm students slept late and ate a breakfast of cold cereal and pastries.

“We managed quite well,” said Cummings. “The dorms stayed warm,” he said, adding that the school was not forced to use several small generators at their disposal. “The biggest problems, and why we called off school, was no heat, no lights, no phones or computers.”

The Piscataquis County Sheriff’s Department was busy Monday fielding calls about power outages throughout the county, limbs on wires and flooded cellars, according to Chief Dispatcher David Roberts. Roberts said there were a couple of minor ice jams in the Piscataquis River, which reportedly crested at 12 feet at noon Monday. The ice jams weren’t as bad as expected and were allowing the water to flow freely, he said.

In SAD 48, Hartland Junior High School was closed Monday when the school was without power. Children were sent home from Hartland Consolidated School and St. Albans Consolidated when power was lost there after children arrived for the day.

Public works crews in Hartland were kept busy through the morning clearing downed trees from roadways, according to Town Manager Peggy Morgan. The heaviest flooding was on both ends of Ford Hill Road, she said. A few homeowners had their driveways washed-out.

The Hartland and St. Albans town offices were both without power through the morning.

Many schools in Hancock County opened late or closed Monday as people across the county woke up without power.

Electric crews in Aroostook County were preparing for another long night as high winds continued to gust up to 40 mph late in the afternoon Monday, bringing down trees, limbs and utility poles.

“It looks like it’s going to be all night,” said Virginia Joles, communications director for Maine Public Service Co. in Presque Isle. “We can only work people so long, and then we have to give them rest.”

Officials with Eastern Maine Electric Cooperative in Calais, which serves customers in southern Aroostook County, said power would not be restored to the Haynesville area until Tuesday morning, because six sections of power line had burned and two poles were broken.

As many as 15,000 MPS customers were without power during the day Monday, many since 2 a.m.

As of 6 p.m., an estimated 2,000 customers were still without power. Some in areas where there was severe damage from trees were not expected to get power back until Tuesday morning.

In Houlton, no figures were available from the Houlton Water Co. for the number of people without power, but a company receptionist said outages were mostly on an individual, spot basis, except in the area near Drews Lake in New Limerick, where trees and limbs on wires were keeping crews busy much of the day.

Both Bangor and Caribou set high-temperature records for the date Sunday. Bangor reached a balmy 60 degrees, 4 degrees higher than the previous record set in 1973.

Monday morning, Caribou had a record of 54 degrees, exceeding the 27-year-old record of 50 degrees for the date.

In Boston, temperatures peaked at 64 degrees on Sunday, breaking the 1984 record of 62. Concord, N.H., and Hartford, Conn., both reached 63, which was 2 degrees higher than their previous records.

Rain was another problem.

The Maine Turnpike was narrowed to one lane southbound between Saco and Scarborough on Monday when erosion from heavy rain damaged part of the breakdown lane, said spokesman Dan Paradee.

The breakdown lane being used for travel during a construction project developed cracks, and workers were expected to be at the scene making repairs through the day, Paradee said.

In New Hampshire, strong winds caused high gusts atop the 6,288-foot summit of Mount Washington.

“This weather is at times more like summer weather than winter weather,” said Tod Hagan, a Mount Washington weather observer. “We’re experiencing thunder and lightning. You don’t usually have thunderstorms in the winter.”

Hagan said the Mount Washington summit had a high wind speed of 98 mph Sunday morning. It had a record high temperature of 40 degrees for the day.

Likewise, higher elevations received stronger wind gusts in Maine, where Mount Desert Rock recorded a gust of 77 mph.