Electricity restored to thousands after storm

Utility crews were busy Thursday restoring electricity to thousands of people after a windstorm Wednesday that brought gusts topping 60 mph to Maine, toppling trees and utility poles and ripping a roof from part of a building.

More than 5,100 homes and businesses were still without electricity at 9 p.m. Thursday, a Central Maine Power spokesman said. Bangor Hydro-Electric Co. reported that about 939 customers were without electricity late in the afternoon, most in Hancock County.

At the peak, more than 70,000 homes and businesses were without electricity as strong winds buffeted the state on Wednesday.

Gov. John Baldacci declared a state of emergency Thursday in response to damage caused by the storm. He said the declaration would allow electrical crews from New Brunswick to come to Maine to help repair downed power lines and waive the cap on the number of hours crews can be on the road.

In Sabattus, winds peeled away half of the roof on a warehouse that held boats and RVs. In Turner, a tree blew down on some utility wires and snapped three utility poles. Across the state, tree limbs and debris littered the landscape.

The storm arrived early Wednesday with a messy mix of rain, freezing rain, sleet and snow, but it was the wind that caused the greatest problems.

Some of the biggest gusts were 66 mph in Alfred and Blue Hill, 62 mph in Cape Elizabeth, 61 mph in Bath, and 59 mph in Brunswick and Eastport.

Officially, the biggest gust was 76 mph at a buoy off Matinicus Rock, said Kirk Apfell, meteorologist from the National Weather Service. If sustained, that strength of gust would have been a hurricane-force wind, Apfell said.

The storm continued its relentless hold on northern Maine, which led to several serious accidents and created even more work for northern Maine public works crews.

The most severe accident sent a Caribou woman to the hospital early Thursday morning with potentially life-threatening injuries. Caribou police closed down U.S. Route 1 between Van Buren and the Cary Medical Center. There were several accidents a few miles north of the city. Whiteouts made driving dangerous in wind-swept areas of the highway.

In Houlton and surrounding southern Aroostook County towns, some schools commenced an hour or two late because of icy roads and whiteout conditions.

Despite the powerful winds, no accidents were reported in the area to the Maine State Police, the Houlton Police Department or the Aroostook County Sheriff’s Department.

On Wednesday night, road crews in Fort Kent were called in when nearly 6 inches of water covered parts of downtown Main Street. Storm drains were frozen over and crews had to chip them open.

No injuries or deaths were reported in Maine. But motorists in New York and Massachusetts died when trees fell onto their vehicles.

In New York, tractor-trailers were toppled by the winds on two bridges. A fallen tree blocked commuter train traffic between Connecticut and New York’s Grand Central Terminal.

In Maryland, a storm-caused power outage forced NASA to scrub its launch Wednesday of an unmanned spacecraft on a voyage to Pluto. The power went out at the Maryland lab that is managing operations for the mission.