LEWISTON – A brief but powerful thunderstorm knocked out power across the state and lightning ripped a chimney from a building in Lewiston.
A weather official described it as a typical summer event but the fast moving storm cut power across portions of the southern half of the state and dumped an inch of rain within a half hour.
No major lightning strikes were reported, although in Lewiston, a Sabattus Street business lost a portion of its chimney when lightning cracked down upon it.
Nobody was hurt when lightning ripped apart a chimney at Black Shark Discount at noon, fire officials said. The lightning strike blew a portion of the chimney across Sabattus and Orchard streets, fire officials said.
On Tampa Street, lightning struck a house and knocked out a circuit to the home. Nobody was hurt.
“There was some good lightning,” said Auburn fire Platoon Chief Bruce Goddard. “I’m really surprised we didn’t have more problems. We were fortunate.”
Thunder and lightning caused power surges that set off home and business alarms around Lewiston and Auburn. At Bates College, employees and students found themselves without electrical power or phone service as a result of the storm.
More than 8,000 Central Maine Power Co. customers lost power, with some remaining in the dark for more than an hour. In Lewiston, 2,700 homes and businesses were without power at the peak of the storm at about noon.
By nightfall, there were still 1,000 CMP customers without power across the state. Crews were continuing to work on the problem and a CMP spokesman said power should be restored to all customers by Wednesday morning.
The worst of the storm passed by 12:15 p.m. Less severe storms continued to roll across the area until about 4 p.m.
“These were very basic summertime thunderstorms,” said Jim Hayes, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Gray. “This is the month we’re going to get them.”
Hayes predicted mild weather on Wednesday but said more thunderstorms may be headed our way at the end of the week.
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