Winds down utility lines

High winds accompanying a storm system that blew across Maine early Monday knocked out power to hundreds of utility customers, keeping repair crews busy the day before Christmas.

Six sections of Bangor Hydro-Electric Co. power lines were repaired in Holden during the early morning hours.

Approximately 956 homes in eastern and central Maine went without power while the lines were repaired, a press release from Bangor Hydro stated.

Around 727 outages were reported in Penobscot County, 118 in Washington County and three in Piscataquis County.

“Customers in the Bangor division have been most significantly affected,” the press release said. “Crews are reporting lines down in Holden, and a number of outages in Orono.”

In Hancock County, another 400 to 450 customers were without power Monday morning. Some of the outages had continued in the towns of Brooklin, Deer Isle, Mariaville, Mount Desert and Otis in Hancock County, Clifton in Penobscot County and Perry in Washington County.

By Monday afternoon, Bangor Hydro said it had limited outages to Addison, Clifton, Perry and Sedgwick.

A dispatcher at the Hancock County Sheriff’s Office said Monday that, despite the outages, things were relatively quiet in the county overnight. The department received a few calls about tree limbs on power lines, she said, but that was about it.

Meteorologist Derrick Weitlich of the National Weather Service in Caribou said wind gusts early Monday exceeded 50 mph in many places across the state.

“The highest reported wind we got down there in Bangor was 52 mph, and that was at 1:07 in the morning at Bangor airport,” he said.

In Washington County, around Cutler, wind gusts of 62 mph were recorded, and in Sedgwick in Hancock County, winds of 56 mph were reported.

“We’re going to have some wind gusts [this week], but nothing near that magnitude,” Weitlich said. “The wind advisory was lifted at 6 a.m. [Monday].”

Monday’s slightly warmer weather is expected to last throughout the week, he said.

“We’re having a little bit of a warm-up there,” Weitlich said. “For Christmas Day, we’re looking for highs around 36 [degrees Fahrenheit].

“Normals are 30 degrees for a high for around this time of year. You’ll be 5 to 7 degrees above that.”

The number of people still without power was dwindling Monday afternoon as work crews finished repairs.

Susan Faloon, Bangor Hydro spokeswoman, said at around 2:30 p.m. Monday that fewer than 150 people were without power. She said the work crews were “really cleaning things up pretty quickly.”

Maine’s weather forecast for Christmas Day called for sunny skies with high temperatures ranging from the mid-20s in northern Maine to the low 40s in southern areas.

nricker@bangordailynews.net

990-8190

BDN writer Bill Trotter and The Associated Press contributed to this report.