Storm closes schools, slicks roads

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A wintry mix of snow, sleet and freezing rain made roads slippery and closed schools across Maine on Wednesday. It also made life difficult for some line crews working to restore electricity to customers left in the dark by a weekend wind storm.

Roads were snow-covered and visibility was limited in Aroostook County Wednesday afternoon.

Other than a tractor-trailer that jackknifed on Route 11 near Patten on Wednesday, Maine State Police said there were no other area accidents reported. The trailer did not result in any damage or injury, according to police.

Meanwhile, line crews from Maine Public Service were working to restore power to about 50 customers in the Cross Lake region, according to MPS spokesperson Virginia Joles. The outage was the result of the current storm and problems caused by severe weather earlier this week, she said.

Crews finished restoring power to more than 15,000 customers, who lost power for up to two days.

At one point, 22 circuits needed repair after the weekend storm, Joles said.

About 20 customers were still without power when the latest storm hit the area and the additional outage was reported in the Cross Lake region.

MPS line workers are also working to remove toppled trees, damaged electric equipment and broken power lines with the help of Asplundh tree trimmers and associated personnel, according to Joles.

Just as Central Maine Power Co. was in the process of reconnecting power to a number of midcoast customers in the aftermath of Sunday’s windstorm, the ice storm blew in.

Company spokesperson Meredith Finn said most of the problems caused by Wednesday’s weather were concentrated in the Brunswick-Harpswell area. Finn said the company was still dealing with outages in sections of Islesboro, Rockland, South Thomaston, Cushing and St. George.

“We’ve seen some today, but they are getting them taken care of,” Finn said Wednesday. “We’ve had about 100 scattered outages, in mostly isolated areas. Just when they get [power] back up in one place, they’re called to another.”

Finn said that although crews have been working steadily since the weekend, fresh crews were standing ready in case predictions for bad weather overnight Wednesday proved to be accurate.

On the municipal front, authorities across the midcoast reported few problems in dealing with the morning’s slick roads. The Waldo County Sheriff’s Department had one call about a vehicle that skidded off the road in Prospect, but the driver had managed to get back on the road before a deputy arrived at the scene.

Belfast police Detective Wendall Ward said officers responded to a few instances of vehicles off the road, but damage was minimal. Streets throughout the city were well sanded by dawn and road crews across the county had few difficulties keeping the roads safe for travel.

The situation was the same in Knox County. The county sheriff’s office reported no incidents of storm-related accidents, as did police departments from Rockland, Camden and Rockport.

The most recent storm apparently didn’t add to the power outages from Sunday night’s rainy, windy weather, according to Bangor Hydro-Electric Co. customer service supervisor Jennifer Brooker.

Nor did it hamper the crews who were working 16-hour shifts to repair the damage from a few days ago. “We’re continuing to make progress,” she said.

Fewer than 500 customers remained without power, mostly in Hancock and Washington counties.

“We’re getting to them as quickly as we can – each time I look to see the number count, it’s coming down,” Brooker said.

Few car accidents were reported by the state police in Augusta. But slippery roads sent cars sliding in southern Maine, said Marcia Gilpatrick, a dispatcher at the state police barracks in Gray.

“We’ve had a lot of slide-offs, but nothing serious. It’s slippery, but people are paying attention,” she said.

In western Maine, Eustis had 8 inches of snow and Bridgton had 7. Most other parts of the state received between 2 and 4 inches, said James Brown, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Gray.

Temperatures were in the 20s and the wind chill was a few degrees below zero in most parts of the state, Brown said.

Schools, community centers, child care centers and organizations throughout the state closed for the day, opened late or canceled activities.

Several Central Maine Power Co. customers lost electricity when cars slid into utility poles, adding to the 100 customers still without electricity after wind storms on Sunday and Monday.

Ice across the region did not cause serious problems on Wednesday, but workers were more concerned about the forecast of strong winds.

“We’re still cleaning up from the earlier-in-the-week storm,” CMP spokesman Mark Ishkanian said. “We’re a little wary of the wind forecast – 20- to 30-knot wind gusts. We hope it doesn’t cause problems.”

In Portland, the runways were clean at the Portland International Jetport, but problems at other airports translated to delays for travelers trying to leave Portland, said Jeff Monroe, the city’s transportation director.

“This morning, things were getting off pretty well, then the entire thing began to shut down,” Monroe said. “We got a cascading effect from all the other airports.”

Ground crews were busy de-icing planes that were held on the runway so long that they had to be de-iced again, he said.

At Bangor International Airport it was business as usual, according to marketing director Jeff Russell, who said flights were “getting out in pretty good order.”

The only hitches seemed to be the delays out of La Guardia Airport in New York, where high winds were impairing operations, and out of Logan Airport in Boston, which had been down to one runway since early Wednesday morning, he said.

Things were going smoothly in Bangor for a couple of reasons, according to Russell. The “special kind” of de-icing fluid that enables planes to sit out in the elements while waiting for takeoff helped.

So did the plowing crew’s foresight. In anticipation of the storm, they moved their holiday luncheon from Wednesday to Thursday, Russell said.

“Now, they’re really going at it out there.”