A tree lies on Munson Road in Wilton on Thursday after winds toppled it, taking down power lines. Donna M. Perry/Sun Journal
FARMINGTON — A wet, windy nor’easter cut power to nearly 6,200 customers in Franklin County and canceled classes at five elementary schools Thursday.
Downed trees and power lines closed roads in a number of towns.
The number of outages dropped from nearly 6,200 at 7:30 a.m. to 4,718 by 1:50 p.m. The hardest hit towns at that time were Phillips with 696 customers; Chesterville, 682; Farmington, 573; Rangeley Plantation, 488; Temple, 439; and Industry, 437, according to Central Maine Power Co.’s list.
Power was lost at Mt. Blue High School in Farmington at 6:40 a.m. when high school and Mt. Blue Middle School bus runs were en route, making it too late to cancel classes, RSU 9 Superintendent Tina Meserve wrote in an email.
“Soon after we lost power at four of our elementary schools so we delayed school and then eventually had to cancel for that level,” she said.
Classes were canceled at Academy Hill and G.D. Cushing schools in Wilton, Cascade Brook School and W.G. Mallett School in Farmington, and Cape Cod Hill School in New Sharon.
“We do have generators but they don’t run everything. We had water, lights were limited to hallways, food court and gym,” at the high school, Meserve said. “We had bathrooms fully functioning and we fed the students breakfast and lunch as the generator provides power to the kitchen.”
“Middle school never lost power so there were no problems there,” the superintendent said. “We were told the power would be on quickly so we were not too worried. We kept getting updates and kept believing it would be on in 15 to 30 minutes. We waited, and waited, and waited. It came on at 10:55 a.m.”
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