Thousands of Central Maine Power Co. customers were without power Sunday after the first major storm of the season dumped more than 10 inches of wet, heavy snow on central and western Maine.

Saturday and Sunday’s nor’easter, which began with heavy rain, quickly switched to snow and powerful winds.

Snow accumulated at a rate of an inch or two per hour in some areas, according to the National Weather Service in Gray.

On Sunday morning, more than 170,000 homes were still without power as electrical crews attempted to clear trees that had fallen into roadways or landed on power lines.

By 3 p.m., that number had decreased to 130,000, according to CMP.

Cumberland County was hit hardest by the storm, with 20,866 customers still without power Sunday afternoon. 

Oxford and Androscoggin counties were also hit hard, with 18,427 and 13,604 customers left without power, respectively.

On CMP’s Twitter page, the company wrote 1,500 people were “supporting restoration efforts,” and advised customers to “prepare to be without power for an extended amount of time.”

A dispatcher said the Franklin County Regional Communications Center was inundated Saturday night with calls about vehicles that had slid off roads.

“It was very busy,” she said. “We punched back in at 6 a.m. (Sunday) morning, and almost all the calls we’ve gotten have been about trees down on wires or lines being down.”

In Oxford County, a dispatcher said a majority of telephone calls were related to downed power lines or trees blocking roadways. 

The National Weather Service reported central and western Maine received between 10 and 15 inches of snow.

Sunday River Ski Resort in Newry reported Sunday morning it had received another 12 inches of snow over the weekend.

“Last night, Mother Nature gifted us a mighty snowstorm delivering 10 to 12 inches of goods,” resort officials wrote on Sunday River’s website. “It will serve as a perfect base as winter kicks into gear.”

On Lewiston Rocks, a popular online Facebook community, many people were reporting outages that had lasted more than 24 hours or Spectrum outages that interrupted people’s cable television and internet service.

Stuart Hickey gives a thumbs-up Sunday after finishing his third run of the morning at Mt Abram in Greenwood. He and his girlfriend hiked up the mountain to get fresh tracks at the yet-to-open ski resort. Andree Kehn/Sun Journal Buy this Photo