By Mark LaFlamme and Jen Otterson,Staff Writers

TURNER – Bill Whitman should have taken his truck for a test drive after getting a new clutch put in.

While working on the Ford in his Upper Street yard Tuesday afternoon, Whitman was nearly struck by a tree that blew down in his yard and crushed two of his vehicles.

“I was picking up a wrench when I heard a funny sound. I looked up, and there was the tree coming right at me,” Whitman said. “I went to the ground, and the tree came down. My head was sticking up between two of the limbs.”

Whitman escaped injury when the 120-year-old maple tree came crashing down, but his Ford pickup and a Subaru were crushed.

The heat wave ended with drama Tuesday afternoon as fierce winds, driving rain and baseball-sized hailstones battered some areas.

In Augusta, a 40-foot roof section of the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency building blew off in winds that gusted up to 59 mph. Nobody was hurt.

Weather experts Tuesday night were exploring reports that a funnel cloud may have touched down as a tornado.

Power went out, tree limbs crashed onto power lines, and it was believed at least two buildings were struck by lightning by the time the storm passed through Turner and Wayne.

In Androscoggin County, sheriff’s officials said most of the chaos came in the form of trees falling, limbs in roadways and downed wires. Turner seemed particularly hard-hit as the storm crossed there at about 2 p.m.

A woman in that town reported her garage was struck by lightening at the peak of the storm. Fire crews responded but the garage did not go up in flames.

In Lewiston, police and firefighters scrambled as fur trees toppled on North Temple Street, roots and all. Around the same time, trees came crashing down at Sabattus and Grove streets, taking out wires and knocking out power to a long stretch of Sabattus Street.

Police officers directed traffic through several intersections where traffic lights were out. In Auburn, fewer reports of downed trees and storm-related calamity were reported.

By dinnertime, Central Maine Power Co. crews were out in force, attempting to repair downed lines. By late Tuesday afternoon, nearly 33,000 customers were without power, and CMP advised that some service would remain down until this afternoon.

Oxford county dispatchers sent fire units to remove fallen trees from power lines in at least eight towns during thunderstorms Tuesday afternoon.

Buckfield was among the hardest-hit, with four trees down on wires. Town Manager Glenn Holmes said at around 3:30 p.m. that power had been out in the town since about 2 p.m. Although the town didn’t receive any of the hail that had been predicted, “The wind blew mightily, ” Holmes said.

Otisfield town clerk Marianne Izzo-Morin said that the town received “a terrible storm, hail and everything.” High winds caused at least one tree in Otisfield to fall across wires.

Fire departments also responded to trees on wires in Paris, Denmark, Hartford, North Turner, and Canton.

Weather forecasters at the National Weather Service in Gray said chances of thunderstorms would remain into this morning. They were still investigating reports of tornado activity, but by late in the day Tuesday, nothing had been confirmed.

“There was a lot of wind,” said meteorologist John Jensenius. “But at this point, there is no evidence of a tornado touchdown.”

Copy the Story Link