By Mark LaFlamme,Staff Writer

LEWISTON – A day after the latest storm dumped a foot of fresh snow across the region, drivers, police and city crews were still suffering through the process of cleaning out.

“The streets are narrow. The roads are still icy, and all the hills are still a problem,” said Lewiston police Sgt. Danny LaChance. “We haven’t had this much snow in a long time. People are getting stuck everywhere.”

Across the Twin Cities, there was hardly enough room for daily traffic. Pedestrians spilled into the streets to escape clogged sidewalks. Two-lane roads were narrowed to one and traffic backed up everywhere. Giant snowbanks made traffic perilous at intersections. Public works crews were working around the clock to clean up, but by late Wednesday, a lot of work remained.

“We’ve had storm after storm, and they don’t have a chance to get caught up,” LaChance said. “The streets are packed down, and there’s ice under the snow. It’s slippery.”

At about 8 a.m. Wednesday, a city truck with a plow sideswiped a bus on Lisbon Street near Weybosset Street. The city truck was unscathed, but the Vermont Transit Co. bus, a 1995 MCI, sustained $5,000 damage.

The wind-whipped storm that wound down Wednesday morning left behind a foot of snow on an already-white landscape. There were fender-benders just about everywhere, accompanied by disabled vehicles and traffic jams.

“We’ve had a lot of breakdowns, a lot of accidents,” said Auburn police Lt. Gary Boulet. “It was awful. The streets are narrow and icy.”

Public works crews were clearing major streets and then turning their attention to side roads. Problem hills were sanded but became slippery again soon after. In addition, cars were left parked on streets in the way of plows, slowing cleanup efforts.

“They’re out there working on it,” LaChance said. “There are a lot of streets out there.”

At 7 p.m. in Lewiston, several cars were stuck trying to climb a sharp hill on Birch Street, near Bates Street. Cars slowly backed down and went another way. Police officers pushed one car out of a snowbank and then a cruiser got stuck.

It was worse 12 hours earlier. In the early morning hours Wednesday, before the storm ground to a halt, fierce winds and whiteout conditions left some drivers unable to continue their journeys.

“Cars were abandoned in the middle of the street and left there,” LaChance said. “It was incredible.”

Winds were measured between 40 and 55 mph overnight, according to the National Weather Service in Gray.

The Mount Washington Observatory in New Hampshire clocked a maximum wind speed of 105 miles per hour at 5 a.m., with 13 inches of snow and ice on the ground and a temperature of minus 20 degrees.

Central Maine Power Co. crews late in the day were working to repair damage and restore power to some areas. Officials there said gusting winds accompanying mixed precipitation caused wires to fall and lights to flicker out.

By noon, the number of people without power dwindled from 9,200 to about 3,000. That number was whittled down further later in the day, and all CMP customers were expected to have power by nightfall. The trouble areas for CMP were the Skowhegan, Dover and Bridgton areas, officials said.

LaChance advised people to be patient while street cleanup continued. The roads should be wide open again just in time for another storm headed our way.

“We live in Maine,” LaChance said. “You have to get used to it.”

Dispatchers for Franklin and Oxford county sheriff’s departments said Wednesday night there were no major injuries or critical rescues during the fierce storm.