LEWISTON - The wind was fierce. Snow was blowing in from all directions. And it was cold, very cold.

Yet Diane Benoit was standing outside on Park Street smoking. Because she knows that the weather gets severe in Maine and you have to learn to live with it. Especially if you crave a cigarette.

"The wind is blowing in my face and I'm freezing to death, but I'm out here anyway," Benoit said. "I just had to have a smoke. You know? It's Maine. If you live here, you've got to go with the flow."

Across the state, people were going with the flow one way or another. Valentine's Day was less about flowers and candy this year than it was about snow blowers and shovels, hats and mittens.

There was no denying the ferocity of the storm. The National Weather Service issued a blizzard warning. The governor declared a state of emergency and state workers were sent home around noon. Hundreds of school classes and other activities were called off and most flights out of the Portland Jetport were canceled.

In Lewiston and Auburn, city offices were shut down and a major criminal trial at the Androscoggin County Superior Court was delayed a day.

By Wednesday night, a dozen inches of snow had fallen on Rumford, Auburn and Lewiston. Ten inches had fallen in Wales, and similar numbers were reported in surrounding towns. Temperatures remained about 15 degrees throughout the day.

"It looks like winter," said Tom Berman, of the National Weather Service in Gray.

He said whiteout conditions were reported throughout the day and wind gusts were expected to reach up to 45 miles per hour.

There was good news though, even as the wind and snow created conditions that were near blinding. There were far fewer car crashes and other calamities than expected.

"It hasn't been bad at all," said Auburn police Lt. Paul LaBarre. "The roads are fairly clear. We've had eight accidents but none with serious injury."

About 10 a.m., a tractor-trailer slid across southbound Washington Street and forced the closure of the busy avenue for about 45 minutes, but police said no major problems resulted.

A car ran into the back of a city plow in Auburn early in the day, and about 6:15 p.m., a city plow ran into a utility pole on Cook Street, cracking it and bringing down wires. No one was hurt, but crews were sent to block off the intersection as repairs were made.

In Lewiston, police were mostly pleased with the few crashes that occurred as the storm raged on. It was the same at area county sheriff's departments. For most police agencies, it was business as usual.

About 7:30 p.m., Maine State Police were called to a crash in Livermore where one person was injured. A police dispatcher said the wreck happened on Route 4 but did not have further details. The injuries were not believed to be life-threatening.

By supper time, as sleet was joining snow, Central Maine Power Co. was enjoying a winter storm that didn't include widespread outages. In fact, even as the snow fell at its heaviest, there were no reports of outages, beyond isolated incidents.

"It's been great. It's cold and dry rather than wet and heavy," said CMP Spokesman Kevin Howes. "It's winter. It's pretty. It's good if you can have some snow without all the outages."

At the same time, Howes was mindful of the unpredictability of nature's wrath. After a relatively easy day, they could have problems overnight.

"We do expect stronger winds to move in," he said. "That could cause problems.

His predictions proved correct. By 5 p.m. Wednesday, CMP crews responded to parts of Cumberland, Falmouth, Gray and Windham where 1,175 power outages were reported. Two hours later, that number had been whittled down to 81 customers without power.

At the National Weather Service, Berman expected the worst of the storm to be over by midnight. By then, he predicted, two feet of snow will likely have fallen in the mountains while people in other areas should wake up today to between 12 and 18 inches.

Still, for some, it was all about perspective. The first big blizzard of 2007 happened in February. It could have started in December.

"We should have gotten this months ago," said Benoit, shortly after finishing her smoke on Park Street. "We complain in winter because it's cold and it snows a lot. We complain in summertime because it's hot. This is Maine. You've got to take it as it comes."