PORTLAND (AP) – Mainers grappled Saturday with damage left by a powerful band of thunderstorms that swept across the region the day before, killing two people in a lightning strike in Standish and leaving thousands of homes and businesses in the dark.

More than 5,000 customers remained without electricity around midday as Central Maine Power called in extra crews to repair downed lines. Roughly 20,000 customers had lost service at the peak of the Friday evening storms and utility spokesman John Carroll said some may not be back on line until Sunday morning.

The hardest hit areas included Gorham, Windham, Buxton, Scarborough, Sanford, Eliot, Lebanon and the Berwicks, Carroll said.

The man and woman killed by lightning were identified as Anthony Clarke, 22, of Standish and Krysta Bearor, 28, who was from Michigan and had family in Vassalboro.

Three young children were at the home on Ossipee Trail West at the time, according to the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office, and Clarke and Bearor had gone outside to retrieve a pair of eyeglasses the family dog had taken from one of the children.

The lightning deaths were the 19th and 20th recorded this year by the National Weather Service.

Several bands of storms swept through southern Maine, bringing torrential rain and strong winds that uprooted trees and knocked down several buildings.

There were also reports of hail in some locations.

Although the weather service received unconfirmed reports of funnel clouds, a survey of damage sites in Standish and Gorham indicated that they were hit by straight-line winds of 70 to 80 mph.

“Everything’s blown down in one direction,” meteorologist Jim Hayes said. He said that if there had been a tornado, trees and debris would have fallen in different directions that reflected the circular path of the wind.

Copy the Story Link