LEWISTON – David Saucier stood in the slush at the end of his driveway making a second pass of the day with a snowblower. It was late in the day Wednesday, and he had just come home after an 11-hour shift with public works on similar cleanup efforts.

The veteran of Maine storms needed few words to express his feelings.

“This is a nightmare,” he said.

It was a sentiment shared by many. Anyone not afforded the luxury of staying home Wednesday was affected by the storm. As promised, it dumped nearly 10 inches of snow in most areas and then followed up with rain that continued into the night.

Central Maine Power crews were out in force battling power outages resulting from lines weighted down by ice and snow or ripped down by falling tree limbs. In several areas, roads had to be closed because power lines had fallen across them.

By dark, continuing rain and downed tree limbs had resulted in power outages for 74,000 CMP customers. More than a third of those were in the Lewiston area, where some homes went dark around dinnertime. Catching up with the outages was proving to be a troublesome task for CMP workers, who were out in full force.

“Crews have been restoring power to customers throughout the day, but as soon as they finish one repair, new damage is reported elsewhere,” said CMP spokesman John Carroll. The company brought in extra personnel for the night shift.

Public works crews started before daylight, plowing, scraping, sanding and tackling a slew of problems, like washed over streets, arising from the double punch of snow and rain.

“A lot of flooding. We can’t keep up,” said Lewiston Public Works dispatcher Paul Fontaine. “It’s everywhere. To me, it’s as bad as the ice storm right now.”

At 4:30 p.m. it was reported that the roadway beneath the railroad overpass on Main Street in Lewiston was submerged. Public works, with manpower already stretched thin, sent crews to the area.

On Lisbon Street, near the malls, a long line of barricades limited inbound traffic to one lane Wednesday night due to a partial road collapse and water backed up into the roadway. Water also washed over a section of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Bridge between Lewiston and Auburn, forcing Lewiston-bound drivers to slow.

The Maine Turnpike Authority issued an advisory cautioning that there was standing water between mile 70 in Auburn and mile 89 in Sabattus.

By 8 p.m., police and public works crews had placed nearly 100 traffic control signs around Lewiston in areas where wires were down or roads were washed out.

On Strawberry Avenue, a train pulled to a stop about 5 p.m. a short distance from the crossing where a car was stuck in ice and snow. Police pushed the car off the tracks and crews later came to clear the area of snow.

Several explosions were reported throughout the night and blue light filled the sky as transformers blew across Lewiston and Auburn.

Police were everywhere, helping control traffic where lines were down or where vehicles had crashed or slipped off the road. Auburn fire crews went to the Maine Turnpike after a vehicle was reported rolled over about 3:30 p.m. They found the crash and radioed back that no one was injured.

For police who work the second shift, the drama began at once. About 4 p.m., Lewiston police Lt. James Minkowsky emerged from an office looking harried and shouting to one of his sergeants.

“We’re going to need you to suit up and get out there,” Minkowsky said. “We’ve got alarms coming in, we’ve got accidents, we’ve got a lot going on.”

It was no exaggeration. At that moment, police, fire and power crews were headed to several areas for reported lines down. They went to College Street, Fisher Street, and Lisbon and Westminster streets in Lewiston for lines down and power out. Similar situations were happening at Washington Street and Miami Avenue as well as Minot Avenue and Mill Street in Auburn. More lines were down on Crowley Road in Sabattus.

By 5 p.m., a dozen more areas were added to that list as more tree limbs fell taking power lines with them. Fire crews responded to each of them, navigating around roads that had been closed due to earlier problems.

Several explosions were reported throughout the night and blue light filled the sky as transformer blew across Lewiston and Auburn.

By nightfall, small fires were scattered across the area. Trees and telephone poles ignited under downed lines, the lines themselves sparked as they fell to the road, and power transformers went up in flames.

“It’s messy,” Auburn deputy police Chief Jason Moen said. “No doubt about it.”

Too messy for most mortals. By noon, all area sports events were canceled. Court workers were sent home and courthouse doors were locked. The Maine Senate and House legislative sessions were postponed. Schools? Forget it.

Subway on Lisbon Street as well as some medical and other offices closed for the day and sent workers home. Continuing rain was making ice and slush on the roads and the threat of more power outages was always looming.

Fontaine, the public works dispatcher in Lewiston, was not the only person chilled by bad memories of the crippling ice storm in 1998. Gail Tarr sat in her Auburn home about 5 p.m. hoping the power wouldn’t go out.

“I went outside and I heard branches snapping. I thought, ‘oh, no.’ It brings back memories,” Tarr said. “The trees are all covered with ice just like they were back then. I hope it warms up soon.”

The difference between Wednesday’s storm and the big one of 1998 was mostly in duration. The rain ended in some parts of the state by nightfall Wednesday, and it was expected to come to a halt in the rest of the state by midnight.

Before snow turned to rain Wednesday morning, 10 inches were reported in Auburn, more than seven in Lewiston. Nine inches of snow were reported in Oxford and similar amounts fell on nearby towns. Nearly 11 inches of snow were recorded in Eustis in Franklin County.

In addition, a quarter inch of ice and nearly 2 inches of rain was measured in Androscoggin County. Nearly a half inch of ice and more than an inch of rain was reported in Oxford County.

In spite of the unpleasant mix and of treacherous roads, fewer crashes than expected were reported throughout the day.

“It really hasn’t been too bad as far as accidents go,” said Moen, Auburn’s deputy chief. “There aren’t a lot of cars on the road. People are staying home if they can.”

There was a ray of hope just a day away. Today is expected to be dry and even sunny, with temperatures above 30 degrees.