RUMFORD — Pennacook Falls on the Androscoggin River raged Wednesday morning after three to more than 5 inches of rain fell overnight in its watershed from Rumford to Pinkham Notch, N.H.
The wind storm also felled and blew tree limbs onto power lines, cutting power to an estimated 10,500 Central Maine Power customers as of 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, Gail Rice, CMP spokeswoman, said in Augusta.
“It was mostly tree limb contact with wires or tree limbs either broke off or were blown into wires,” she said.
In Oxford County there were no serious outages or flooding from the storm, officials said.
As of 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, only 222 customers were without power in Oxford County, whereas there were 273 in Androscoggin County and 1,166 in Franklin, one of the hardest hit areas of Maine, Rice said.
By noon, Rice said those numbers were down to 20 in Oxford County, 112 in Androscoggin County and 595 in Franklin County.
“It’s the first significant storm we’ve had in a while,” she said.
As for the wind and rain, meteorologist Tom Hawley with the National Weather Service in Gray, said the highest gusts were 45 mph. But the heaviest rain, he said, fell in central and southern Oxford County.
He said 2.84 inches was measured in Bethel, 2.34 in Rumford, 2.94 in Norway, and 2.80 in Oxford, and in New Hampshire, 3.49 inches in North Conway, 4.15 inches in Jackson, and more than 5 inches in Pinkham Notch.
Several people stopped into the Information Center off Route 2 to photograph the raging release over Pennacook Falls at Brookfield Power’s dam and sluice down below the Reflection Pool in Rumford.
Due to the gusts, Rice shared concerns about large broken limbs left high in trees and broken tree tops called “widowmakers” that are “hanging by a thread” in affected trees across Maine.
“People should be aware of and careful around these,” Rice said.
A man, bottom right, watches the Androscoggin River rages past one of Eugene Boivin’s steel silhouette sculptures on Wednesday morning in Rumford. Heavy rains upriver forced dam operators to open gates.
Terry Karkos/Sun Journal
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