SACO – A day after a powerful nor’easter washed away the road and a car parked in front of his home, Mark Gilbert removed items from the house on Tuesday and marveled at the devastation wrought by the deadly storm.

Two rental cottages next to the one Gilbert rents with two friends toppled over as their foundations gave way from the pounding ocean. Boulders and sand were swept into yards. A utility pole toppled onto the parked car, then the powerful surf washed the vehicle away.

“A wave came up, grabbed the car and took it into the ocean,” Gilbert said as water lapped up against foundation of his oceanfront home. “They found it down there, about 300 yards,” Gilbert added, gesturing down the beach.

The cleanup began on Tuesday, a day after the storm with gusts topping 80 mph and rainfall topping 7 inches felled utility poles, knocked over trees and created raging floodwaters.

But it was hampered by the fact that many roads and bridges were out, said Steve Harding of the York County Emergency Management Agency.

In York, snowplows were used Tuesday to remove boulders and other debris that washed onto U.S. Route 1A. In Portland, a crane was ordered to salvage three boats that sank at DiMillo’s Marina.

Tens of thousands of Mainers were still in the dark Tuesday, and they were warned that it could be days before electricity was fully restored.

In York County, it was the second year in a row in which Mother Nature hammered vacation spots, particularly the storm-prone Camp Ellis section of Saco, Kennebunk Beach and the coastal areas of York. Destruction from a Mother’s Day storm in 2006 left tourist businesses at York Beach scrambling to get ready for the summer season.

At York Beach on Tuesday, seaweed littered the sidewalks and a large Coast Guard bell buoy lay on the beach, ripped from its mooring. The ocean surge on Monday turned the village’s streets into rivers and filled a parking lot with sand.

“We’re used to this by now,” said Joe Lipton, owner of Inn on the Blues. “We just say, ‘Bring it on.’ There’s nothing you can do.”

Harvey Reid of York watched in awe as huge waves crashed ashore. The storm reminded him of the one in 1991 that formed the basis of the book, “The Perfect Storm.” “But the ‘perfect storm’ was nothing compared to this,” he said.

As of Tuesday afternoon, Central Maine Power was still trying to sort out problems with its main trunk lines, and the Maine Department of Transportation was assessing washed out roads and bridges, Harding said.

“They’re trying to figure out a way to get their infrastructure back together so they can begin doing repairs,” he said.

The problems in York County caused the cancellation of service by Amtrak’s Downeaster, which runs from Portland to Boston, for a second day on Tuesday. Part of the track was washed out, and workers were attempting to make repairs so service could resume Wednesday.

Central Maine Power, which was dealing with the largest number of power outages since the ice storm of 1998, still had 71,000 homes and businesses without service Tuesday, while Bangor Hydro Electric reported about 2,100. The totals showed that utility crews were making progress.

Meanwhile, emergency officials warned people to stay away from downed power lines and not to attempt to cross flooded roads.

During the height of the storm’s fury, a Lebanon woman and her 4-year-old granddaughter died as they tried to cross a washed-out section of road to get to the woman’s home, the Maine Warden Service reported.

Donna Dube, 50, and Saphire Perro of Manchester, N.H., were pulled from the Little River and were pronounced dead at a Sanford hospital.

“If you see water on the roads, turn around and go back,” Harding said. “We had a fatality … and we don’t want to see that happen again.”

Gov. John Baldacci, speaking at Maine Emergency Management Agency headquarters in Augusta, said recovery from what he called Maine’s worst natural disaster since the 1998 ice storm has begun but will be a long-term process.

The state of emergency will continue for at least a few more days and extra line crews have been brought in from Canada to help restore power, Baldacci said. He said he has been in touch with federal officials about additional help.

Appealing for patience, the governor said, “It will take time to assess, plan and recover.”

“We don’t want any more fatalities. We want people to watch out for each other, that’s a true Maine tradition to look out for each other, and lend a hand to a neighbor, make sure you’re calling on seniors. In a lot of cases people aren’t leaving their homes and they wait until it’s too late. I don’t want that to happen,” he said.

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Associated Press writers David Sharp and Jerry Harkavy contributed to this report.