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A fallen tree branch blocks a lane of traffic Friday on Deering Avenue in Portland. Michele McDonald/Press Herald
A strong storm that knocked out power for thousands also dumped a record amount of rain in some areas, according to the National Weather Service.
The storm started late Thursday and ended late Friday, said weather service meteorologist Michael Clair. Much of Maine received about 3 inches, but some western and mountain areas were doused with nearly 6 inches, he said.
The storm was slow moving, with waves of heavy rainfall and high wind gusts. “We don’t get that many storms that put down that much rain,” Clair said.
Portland received 2.79 inches of rain Friday, which broke the former record of 1.82 inches for Oct. 14 in 1882. Augusta received 3.21 inches, beating the former record of 1.02 inches on Oct. 14, 1978, Clair said.
In southern and western Maine, the heaviest rain and wind peaked Friday afternoon. As the storm moved through the state, heavy rain continued later Friday in central Maine and the Midcoast region, he said.
Wind gusts reached 40 to 50 miles per hour in much of Maine, but were even stronger in York County when a thunderstorm broke out in the afternoon, Clair said.
Flooding was reported in some areas, including around the Swift River in Roxbury, Clair said. A road in Glenburn, near Bangor, collapsed because of heavy rain and is closed indefinitely, according to the Glenburn Fire Department’s Facebook page.
In Portland, some streets flooded during the heaviest rain that came through around high tide, but it was not severe enough to close roads, according to police.
In Westbrook, Cumberland Avenue was flooded and closed for part of Friday because storm drains became clogged with leaves, said Westbrook Assistant Fire Chief Gary Wagner. Cumberland Avenue was cleared by public works staff, he said.
The Westbrook Fire Department received three times the normal volume of calls from people reporting downed wires and trees, Wagner said. With fewer people working in public safety, the high call volume was challenging, he said.
A total of 112,000 Central Maine Power customers lost power from the storm, said CMP spokeswoman Catharine Hartnett. But by 9 a.m. Saturday morning, outages were reduced to 14,000, she said.
Counties with the most outages Saturday morning were York with 4,993 customers without power; Androscoggin, 2,223 outages; Kennebec with 2,332 outages, and in Cumberland 1,633 customers were without power.
By about 7 p.m., a total of 648 still had no power, most of them in Kennebec County, with 216, and York County, with 193.
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A Portland Water Resources worker tries to clear a blocked drain on Deering Avenue near Devonshire on Friday afternoon. Michele McDonald/Photo Editor
The vast majority of outages were likely to be repaired by the end of Saturday, Hartnett said. More than 600 line workers from CMP, CMP sister companies and contractors were making repairs, she said.
“We continue to make steady progress and have moved crews to the harder hit areas in Androscoggin and York counties,” said Adam Desrosiers, vice president of electric operations. “We are mostly working in more remote areas today where we are making the system repairs that, while just as time consuming, restore a smaller number of customers when complete,” he said in a statement released Saturday.
CMP cautioned people to stay away from any downed lines. Those customers without electricity should turn off or unplug major appliances and sensitive electronics such as televisions and computers. They could be damaged if a surge happens when power is restored.
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