A cluster of thunderstorms brought high winds and rain to southern Maine on Friday evening, knocking out power to more than 20,000 York County electric customers, some of whom remained in the dark throughout Saturday.
Around 7 p.m. Friday, 20,425 Central Maine Power customers were without electricity in York County. A total of 29,446 were without power statewide, including 5,488 in Cumberland County and 2,258 in Androscoggin County.
By Saturday evening, fewer than 500 CMP customers remained without power, almost all of them in York County, according to an online list of outages.
CMP, the state’s largest electric utility, has about 670,700 customers in southern and central Maine.
CMP had estimated about a two-hour wait time Friday evening, though spokesperson Jon Breed noted that restoration times could vary based on location and extent of damage.
Our crews are responding to outages after a strong storm swept through Maine this evening.
We will restore power as quickly and as safely as possible.
Remember, no line is safe to touch! You can report an outage in your area by calling, going online, or through our app. pic.twitter.com/HJBaQtelVV
— Central Maine Power (@cmpco) September 8, 2023
The National Weather Service service issued 15 individual severe storm warnings Friday night, weather service meteorologist Sarah Thunberg said Saturday morning.
“It’s hard to count how many storms we had,” she said, noting that some warnings could have been for the same storm. One storm in particular stood out, as it reached from Old Orchard Beach to Casco Bay: “That was one big thunderstorm,” Thunberg said.
The highest recorded wind gusts Friday night were in New Hampshire, where the wind gusted over 60 mph. The highest gusts in southern Maine were 43 mph in Arundel and 49 mph off the Portland shore, Thunberg sad.
Scattered rain and more thunderstorms could pop up later Saturday.
The York County Emergency Management Agency said in a tweet Friday night that the weather had caused a significant number of electric outages, downed trees and downed electrical wires. The agency reminded people to assume all power lines are live, never touch power lines or anything in contact with them, and avoid driving over downed power lines.
Copy the Story LinkThis pm’s thunderstorm caused a significant # of power outages in York County. Utilities crews are currently out responding, but there are still over 20,000 outages & a # of downed trees & lines. Use caution as crews work through the damages. #poweroutage #safety #yorkcountyema pic.twitter.com/AQgHNGILJT
— York County EMA (@YorkCountyEMA) September 8, 2023
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