State plunges into deep freeze Subzero temps, wind chills force Mainers indoors, close schools

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Mainers awakened to the coldest morning of the winter Thursday as subzero temperatures combined with brisk winds to put the state in the deep freeze.

Overnight lows included 17 below zero in Greenville, 15 below in Presque Isle, minus 9 in Augusta, minus 8 in Bangor, minus 5 in Wiscasset and 1 above in Portland.

The National Weather Service posted a wind chill warning for northern Maine and the western mountains, cautioning that conditions in some places may make it feel as cold as 45 below zero. The rest of the state was under a wind chill advisory.

The weather service in Gray said an Arctic cold front moving in from eastern Canada was responsible for the bone-chilling cold.

While most seasoned Mainers who were out and about didn’t seem to mind the cold, a few chilly shoppers could be found Thursday afternoon at the Bangor Wal-Mart.

“I’m going to go home and start a wood fire,” a bundled-up Ty Bishop of Frankfort said. Through the scarf she was wearing to protect her face from the wind, Bishop said she stopped on her way home from work to pick up a few items at her husband’s request.

Maine, however, wasn’t the only cold spot on the map.

“It’s a tossup between here and Minnesota as far as the coldest temperatures,” National Weather Service meteorologist Duane Wolfe said Thursday. “It seems like the whole northern interior of the U.S. has got pretty cold temperatures.”

Forecasters advised people to stay indoors if possible and to dress in several layers of loose-fitting clothing if they had to go outside.

“In these temperatures, especially here in the northern part of the state where we have the warning out, we’re looking at a matter of just a couple of minutes to cause frostbite with these wind chills,” Wolfe said.

The Pine Tree Chapter of the American Red Cross aided one couple in Medway who lost their home to a fire on Thursday but, other than that, hasn’t seen much need for assistance, Christie Whitten, emergency services coordinator said.

The frigid temps made it difficult for fire crews who responded to the trailer fire on Route 116 at the Medway home of Dino Merritt and Candy Austin. No one was injured in the 10:30 a.m. blaze, but the trailer was destroyed.

Wind and subzero temperatures were likely contributors to how fast fire the spread, Medway Assistant Fire Chief Mark Grant said. The cold also caused some equipment on a Medway engine to freeze up, Grant said, along with equipment on a Mattawamkeag engine that responded to mutual aid for the fire.

“The wind and the cold were unreal today,” Grant said. “It froze up a lot of things.”

Along the coast, where the warmest temperatures in the state were found, a Bar Harbor police dispatcher said it was so cold Thursday afternoon that even criminals were lying low.

No power and lots of cold

Yet the cold caused some problems when it snapped power lines in Dover-Foxcroft, leaving more than 2,000 customers in the area without power for about six hours.

The loss of power at a time when temperatures dipped well below zero and brisk winds prevailed sent some residents looking for warmer places and forced schools to close.

The outage occurred at 3:05 a.m. when three wires that serve an older transmission line between Dover-Foxcroft and Guilford broke, according to a Central Maine Power company spokesperson. Power was restored to all customers by 9:15 a.m., the spokesperson said.

As homes grew cold in the early morning, people began calling the Piscataquis County Sheriff’s Department. The department logged more than 100 calls from concerned residents about the loss of power, according to Dispatcher Gary Grant.

“It was constant phone calls,” Grant remarked.

The calls included one from a man who reported that his 31-year-old wife may have frostbitten feet. Grant dispatched an ambulance and the woman was taken to Mayo Regional Hospital.

For the elderly who called and said they were cold, officials advised them either to go to the Dover-Foxcroft Fire Department or to the lobby at Mayo Regional Hospital, both of which had backup generators in use. Transportation was found for those who had no way to get to either site.

Grant said it is very important for elderly residents to have a land-based telephone, especially in the winter months. He said police were asked to check on some elderly people who could not be reached by telephone because they were served by a portable phone. Portable telephones are disabled during power outages, he said.

The elderly were not the only ones concerned for safety in the bitter cold. School officials, who were told not to expect power to be restored until at least 10 a.m., closed school for the day. In addition to SeDoMoCha Middle School and Morton Avenue Elementary School, school officials also called off Monson Elementary School. Foxcroft Academy also canceled classes.

Some businesses and local government offices, including the Dover-Foxcroft town office, were closed until power was restored.

The Dover-Foxcroft outage was the only widespread outage reported in the state on Thursday.

“We’ve had a few scattered outages, but nothing out of the ordinary,” said LuAnn Williams, Bangor Hydro-Electric Co.’s corporate communications officer.

Pets and cars affected

Human beings weren’t the only ones dealing with the cold. The Bangor Humane Society warned that no animal should be outdoors for any length of time on Thursday.

“If it’s too cold for you to be outdoors, it’s too cold for your pet to be outdoors,” Becky Brimley, the shelter’s executive director, said.

If people have any concern about animals left outside that they think may be in danger because of the cold, Brimley said they should call the animal welfare program at 287-3846 or (877) 269-9200.

As people and pets shivered, the AAA’s Maine office was deluged with hundreds of calls from motorists whose vehicles failed to start because of the cold weather.

On a normal winter day, the northern New England call center handles about 1,700 calls, according to Pat Moody, manager of driver education and traffic safety.

“We’re probably almost doubling the amount of calls that you get in an average day,” Moody said. The center already had received 2,000 calls by 2:30 p.m., most of which were for jump-starts and lockouts, he said.

AAA spokesman Matt McKenzie said motorists would be well-advised to have their car and truck batteries tested. “If it’s weak or marginal, you’re going to want to replace it,” he said.

Moody advised motorists to keep a full tank of fuel, leave plenty of time for vehicles to warm up and to make sure cell phones are fully charged in case of an emergency.

The cold blast is expected to continue into the weekend until the next clipper-type system brings minimal precipitation to the region Sunday night and early Monday.

Wind-chill warnings and advisories throughout the state were to stay in effect at least through this morning, NWS meteorologist Wolfe said.

“It looks like we do have kind of an extended period [of cold] at least through this week, and then we are looking for some moderation as the next system approaches,” Wolfe said.

NEWS reporters Diana Bowley, Aimee Dolloff, Liz Chapman and Anthony Saucier contributed to this report.