Lightning startles Lincoln residents Weather for Fourth unsettled statewide

For just a millisecond, the Fourth of July became a bit more explosive than Samantha Davis would have liked.

Davis, 24, had just finished bathing her 14-month-old son, Camerun, and was dressing him when a bolt of lightning hit a tree across the street from her home on West Broadway in Lincoln about 11 a.m. Tuesday.

Davis shrieked, screamed a few impolite words, instinctively wrapped her son in her arms and turned from the window.

“It scared the heck out of us both,” Davis said later Tuesday.

“I didn’t do much except to try to calm her down,” husband Danny Davis said.

Generated by a brief squall, the lightning bolt hit the pine tree with such power that it sent wood chips showering across West Broadway and split the 3-foot-thick tree trunk along most of its 120-foot height, causing one lane of traffic to be shut down until about 5 p.m.

Such unscheduled fireworks were prompted Tuesday by unsettled weather across the state, causing the National Weather Service to issue several warnings throughout the day and evening about intense storm activity.

Thunderstorms with heavy rains and hail were expected to continue throughout the night across much of the state.

Nevertheless, Mainers cooked out, marched in parades and enjoyed other activities Tuesday in celebrating the Fourth of July holiday.

Parades across the state drew politicians, several of whom are running in November elections.

The end of the holiday weekend also meant busy roads across Maine.

Maine Turnpike officials expected as many as 950,000 motorists to use the toll road between Friday and Wednesday.

In Lincoln, Tuesday’s lightning strike caused firefighters to evacuate 631 West Broadway for fear that the tree would hit the house or utility lines running parallel to West Broadway. They called Bangor Hydro-Electric Co., which dispatched a crew from Asplundh Tree Expert Co. of Milo to cut down the tree.

“If we were to rock it a little bit, she would come right down on her own,” Fire Department Engineer Rick Smart said.

Asplundh workers had trimmed most of the treetop when it accidentally fell onto the utility lines, forcing Bangor Hydro to return to the scene, repair the wires and replace a utility pole. The accident cut electricity and telephone service to several homes in the area into the early evening, firefighters said.

The lightning strike and subsequent mishap added some excitement to what residents thought would be a quiet Fourth of July.

“I was asleep when all of a sudden I heard this big ‘crack-boom!’ sound,” said Yvonne Aubut, 20, of 631 West Broadway. “I thought the lightning had hit the house.”

Aubut and her father gathered the family’s six pets – two cats, a kitten and three dogs – when firefighters ordered their house evacuated, she said.

They entertained themselves by shopping at Wal-Mart, then sitting in the Davis’ front yard as the utility crew worked.

In Bar Harbor, a blown fuse in a distribution line was to blame for a two-hour power outage Tuesday evening, Bangor Hydro spokesperson Janis Piper said.

The Independence Day outage affected 100 customers in the downtown area surrounding the police station.

According to the company’s Web site, Cottage, Kennebec and Main streets lost power.

Power was out from about 5:30 p.m. to about 7:30 p.m.

Any businesses that had damage due to the outage can file a damage claim with Bangor Hydro, Piper said.

Tim Robertson, BDN reporter, contributed to this story.