AUGUSTA – Hundreds of people were left in the dark Wednesday evening after a powerful thunderstorm toppled trees and downed power lines.

Central Maine Power put the number of power outages at 720, with the bulk of them in the Augusta area. Bangor Hydro-Electric Co. also reported scattered outages in Hancock County.

CMP communications center supervisor Kevin Howes says 45 mph gusts sent tree limbs crashing and knocked down a few utility poles.

“There are power lines down all over the place,” Castine resident Joshua Schmersal told the Bangor Daily News late Wednesday night.

He said trees were knocked down onto cars and homes and across roads in the area.

Schmersal said a member of the emergency crews helping to clear the roads told him that a wind radar on the Maine Maritime Academy’s training vessel, the State of Maine, clocked the wind at 90 miles per hour at one point.

The destruction reminded him of the Ice Storm of 1998, he said. Schmersal added that Wednesday’s storm went through the area very quickly “maybe 10 to 15 minutes.”

Meteorologist Eric Schwibs from the National Weather Service said a severe thunderstorm warning was posted as the storm swept through western Maine and then through the capital region before hitting Rockland and blowing out to sea.

Power lines and trees were also knocked down in Waldo County Wednesday evening. The towns of Northport, Liberty and Searsmont were hit hardest, with numerous small fires caused by arcing live wires, according to the Waldo County Sheriff’s Department. No injuries were reported.