Wind subsides Sunday, but cold air on the way
Central Maine Power reported that their customers who had power loss were back online.

PORTLAND (AP) – Hundreds of utility customers in Maine remained without power Sunday after high winds snapped tree limbs and played havoc with power lines a day earlier.

High winds that blustered across the state toward the Maritime Provinces were expected to leave another calling card: the coldest air of the season, which is expected to arrive from Canada on Tuesday, the National Weather Service said.

The temperature drop is expected to bring snow showers or a mixture of snow and rain showers in southern Maine.

At the height of the wind storm Saturday, more than 11,000 customers across Maine were without power. The heavy winds proved deadly in Maine’s neighboring state when a tree fell on a Goffstown couple’s minivan and killed them as they were driving through Weare, N.H. Winds also knocked down a Christmas tree in front of city hall in Manchester, N.H. To Maine’s northeast in New Brunswick, as many as 12,000 customers were without electricity because of wind damage.

While no major injuries were immediately reported in Maine, the storm brought plenty of inconvenience. The wind and rough surf left Nubble Light off York darkened as it was scheduled to become fully illuminated for the holidays on Saturday night.

Central Maine Power, which had reported 733 customers in the dark early in the day, said everyone was back on line.

Bangor Hydro Electric Co. said 1,000 to 1,200 customers were without power Sunday, down from 4,500 the day before. Bangor Hydro said its hardest-hit areas were in Hancock, Washington, Penobscot and Piscataquis counties. Repair crews and tree-cutting crews were working shifts throughout Sunday to restore power as quickly as possible, the utility said.

Bangor Hydro also said it was gaining ground on the outages and expected to have power restored to most of its customers by day’s end.

During the height of the storm in CMP’s service area, outages were scattered from York County to Farmington and along the coast, utility spokesman John Carroll said.

A scheduled outage in York and Kittery, from midnight until 4 a.m. Sunday, was postponed until next week. The outage had been planned to accommodate work on a substation, but crews involved in the work were dispatched to help restore power to customers who lost service, Carroll said.

AP-ES-11-30-03 1817EST