A Thanksgiving storm knocked out power to more than 70,000 homes and businesses across Maine, with thousands of outages continuing on Black Friday and into the weekend, though almost all were resolved by Sunday.
The number of outages dropped significantly across Friday and Saturday, and by Sunday morning, only a small handful of customers were without power. More than 50,000 Central Maine Power and Versant Power customers woke up Friday without power; by the next morning, about 15,000 were still without electricity.
The storm, which rolled into the state Thursday morning, brought rain throughout the day to much of southern Maine before switching to snow later in the afternoon everywhere except the immediate coastline.
More than 52,000 CMP customers were without power at 7:30 a.m. Friday, but that number dropped steadily throughout the morning. By late Friday night, about 14,300 customers were without power, according to the company’s online outage list, and by Saturday morning, about 10,700 outages remained. By Sunday morning, only about 100 customers were without power, according to CMP’s website.
Hardest hit was Somerset County, where more than 13,000 customers were without power to start Friday. CMP reported 9,400 outages in Kennebec County, 6,700 in Androscoggin, 6,700 in Oxford, 6,300 in Penobscot and 4,600 in Franklin as of Friday morning.
Source: Central Maine Power
Versant Power, which serves northern and eastern Maine, reported more than 18,000 outages Friday morning, primarily in the greater Bangor region. By Saturday morning, outages had dropped to about 4,000.
“A full complement of internal crews and contracts are responding to outages from last night’s snowstorm. Crews are prioritizing public safety issues like downed lines and then will work to make repairs that will restore the most customers at a time,” Versant said in a midday update Friday.
Versant officials said restoration work in Penobscot and Piscataquis counties was expected to continue into Saturday, with service in Aroostook, Hancock and Washington counties expected to be restored by the end of Friday.
As of Saturday morning, Versant’s online outage tracker showed about 3,100 outages in Penobscot County and 800 in Piscataquis; only a few dozen outages remained in Aroostook, Hancock and Washington counties.
On Thursday, power outages ticked up steadily throughout the afternoon as snow piled up in inland areas. There were fewer than 100 households across the state without power at 2:30 p.m. but nearly 17,000 at 7 p.m., according to CMP’s and Versant’s websites. Oxford and Somerset counties saw the bulk of those outages, while the coastal counties remained mostly untouched.
Forecasters had warned that the combination of Thursday evening’s wet, heavy snow and gusty winds expected to pick up later that night could be a recipe for downed power lines.
In an update posted on social media Friday morning, CMP said crews were finding fallen trees that need to be removed before power can be restored.
“After working through the night, we’ve restored more than 33,000 customers and more than 100 crews will continue working today,” the update read. “Please give our crews plenty of room to work roadside. Driving conditions may continue to be dangerous, especially during morning hours.”
The highest snow total reported to the National Weather Service was 15 inches in Brighton Plantation in Somerset County. Franklin County also saw significant snow accumulation, with 12.5 inches reported in Rangeley and 10 inches in Farmington.
In Oxford County, snowfall totals include 11.5 inches in Bethel, 10.3 inches in Brownfield and 12 inches in Hartford. Snow totals in Androscoggin County varied widely, from 9 inches in Turner to 2 inches in Lewiston.
Closer to the coast, towns like Windham and Cumberland reported about an inch of snow accumulation. Just a trace of snow was reported at the Portland International Jetport.
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