Eastern Maine bears brunt of Noel’s dregs

PORTLAND – Utility crews worked through the day Sunday to restore power to thousands of Mainers who were left in the dark after high winds and heavy rains lashed the state.

A nor’easter resulting from the remnants of Hurricane Noel moved through the Gulf of Maine on Saturday into Sunday after the storm made its way up the East Coast.

Eastern Maine took the brunt of the storm, with Bangor Hydro-Electric Co. reporting a peak of nearly 9,000 customers without power as of 7 a.m. Sunday. Most of the outages were in Hancock County.

Bangor Hydro officials said most customers would have power back by 10 Sunday night, but as many as 3,000 customers in Hancock County would likely be without electricity until today.

Some roads at Acadia National Park were closed because of downed trees but were soon reopened.

High winds and rain also caused scattered power outages across Eastern Maine Electric Co-op’s delivery area Saturday night and Sunday morning as the last of Noel moved through the area, Charlie McAlpin, manager of communication for EMEC, said Sunday. The co-op’s coverage area includes eastern Washington County, southern Aroostook County and western Penobscot County.

The worst of the outages happened around 1:45 a.m. Sunday when a transmission-related outage left nearly 2,300 homes and businesses in the dark in southern Aroostook and northern Penobscot counties. Power to the affected transmission line, which is owned by Maine Public Service Co., was restored around 3:30 a.m., McAlpin said.

Another 1,000 customers in EMEC’s coverage area were affected by smaller outages. The town of Vanceboro was without power for about four hours during one tree-related incident, McAlpin added.

Electricity in the Milo-Brownville area was out much of Saturday night, and scattered outages were reported in Dover-Foxcroft.

Outages in the Central Maine Power Co. region peaked at a high of 5,172 at 11:30 p.m. Saturday. CMP hoped to restore service to all customers by Sunday night, a company official said.

The heaviest rains and highest winds were felt in eastern Maine.

Just over 5 inches of rain fell in Cutler, while Bass Harbor got 4.8 inches, according to the National Weather Service. Dennysville, Deer Isle, Acadia National Park, Eastport and East Machias all had more than 4 inches.

The top winds came in at 66 mph in Cutler and 64 mph in Brooklin, the weather service said.

In Camden, Assistant Fire Chief Wayne Clark said police, fire and highway departments responded to scores of calls for clogged storm drains, fallen trees and downed limbs.

“We had debris on almost every street in town,” Clark said. “We just got plain hammered.”

Northern Maine got hit with snow, with 6 inches falling in Fort Kent and 4 inches in Allagash, according to the weather service.

With trees and power lines down in eastern Maine, CMP sent crews to help Bangor Hydro crews Sunday in power restoration efforts.

CMP said utilities in the Canadian Maritimes were also seeking assistance, and that CMP crews might be sent to Nova Scotia today.

BDN reporters Diana Graettinger, Diana Bowley and Walter Griffin contributed to this report.