From staff reports

It was wet, it was windy and it was wild. Yet in many ways, the storm that roared through the lower part of the state Tuesday was not exactly as expected.

More than 8,000 homes and businesses were without power by Tuesday night as winds gusted up to 60 mph in some places. Emergency officials remained concerned about flooding as steady downpours continued into the night. But in some areas, the worst of the weather came in the form of snow rather than rain.

Snow started falling Tuesday morning in Carrabassett Valley and didn’t stop until there were 6 inches on Sugarloaf Mountain and at least 3 inches through the region.

In the Rumford and Oxford Hills areas, a mixture of snow and rain made traveling treacherous in spots. No serious injuries were reported, but many cars and trucks skidded into or upended in ditches along most major highways.

National Weather Service observer Betty Wing of Eustis said the snow was coming down quite thickly and had covered the ground by 2 p.m. Tuesday. The temperature had dropped from 36.5 degrees to 32 degrees, she added.

Tom Haggan, a weather observer in Rangeley, said 1 inch covered the ground and snow was falling at a moderate pace Tuesday afternoon. Snow started mixing with rain about 9 a.m. until it turned to just snow, he said.

By 5 p.m., emergency dispatchers and police had dealt with several motor vehicle accidents in northern Franklin County, including a few rollovers and vehicles sliding off the roads, with most reporting only property damage.

Meanwhile, despite the heavy rains Monday night and Tuesday, public works and state road crews from Bethel to Dixfield were gearing up for winter plowing and sanding Tuesday afternoon, not flood-control measures.

A winter storm watch Tuesday morning in western Maine quickly evolved into a snowstorm warning by 4 p.m., with up to a foot of snow predicted by the National Weather Service in Gray.

Bethel Public Works Director Scott Sumner said snow was starting to fall by 1 p.m., but wasn’t sticking to road surfaces. Dixfield Public Works Director Tim Hanson said his crews were getting the sanding trucks ready before mounting plows on trucks.

“We will have at least one sand truck ready,” he said Tuesday afternoon. “Unfortunately, it’s winter, but we’re ready to go.”

Rumford and Mexico highway crews and the Maine Department of Transportation in Dixfield all said they were ready for the winter storm. The DOT has been plowing western Maine roads since last week when several inches fell in Upton and higher elevations.

Snow mixed with rain throughout the morning and early afternoon in the Androscoggin River Valley area. But in Newry and Andover, temperatures dipped below freezing and it was predominantly snow.

Andover Fire Chief Ken Dixon said he was more worried about snow than possible flooding, with an inch of snow on the ground by 1 p.m.

“Unless we get high water backing up on the Androscoggin River, it won’t flood,” Dixon said. “When the Androscoggin backs up, it pushes the Swift and Ellis rivers back, because it’s so flat up here. Any rise in the river backs up our rivers,” he said.

While responding to a rollover off Route 232 in Bethel, Oxford County Deputy Michael Halacy worried about county cruisers and rapidly deteriorating road conditions.

“They still have summer tires on,” he said. The department doesn’t “usually expect snowstorms until mid-November.”

Art Lester of the National Weather Service in Gray, predicted 4 to 8 inches of snowfall generally for the mountains and 6 inches to 1 foot for higher elevations.

In other areas, rain was still the biggest challenge.

“Rain (will) be heavy through the night and might cause flooding in some areas,” Lester said.

In Lewiston and Auburn and other parts of Androscoggin County, the day was marked by weather that was wet, cold and miserable but not as troublesome as in areas to the west.

“We’ve had a few accidents that may have been caused by poor visibility,” said Lewiston police Lt. Tom Avery. “But we haven’t had a lot of problems.”

By the middle of the day, 13,000 Central Maine Power Co. customers were without power. Crews whittled that down to 7,000 by the dinner hour, but the number crept up to 8,500 outages by 8 p.m.

Worst hit was the Rockland area, where 3,250 CMP customers were in the dark Tuesday night. There were 1,650 outages in the Lewiston area and 950 around Brunswick.

CMP crews were expected to remain out in force into this morning, long after the storm was predicted to abate around midnight.

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