In Auburn, Thursday morning’s downpour made things stink. In Portland, it broke a 135-year-old record. Just about everywhere else, it flooded streets and knocked out power to thousands of homes and businesses.

More than six hours of rain dumped more than 4 inches in some areas and the raucous, slow-moving storm brought high winds and thunder to add to the wet and wild fun.

“It was a lot of rain, and it fell for six or seven hours,” said Tom Hawley, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Gray. “It rained really hard, and we had some thunderstorms to go with it. This kind of weather in October is not unheard of, but it was a bit unusual.”

The creeping rainstorm was over before noon, but by then, some school classes had been canceled and nearly 9,000 Central Maine Power customers were in the dark. A CMP spokesman said power to 8,600 homes and businesses – most along the coast but more than a few in the Lewiston-Auburn area – was lost at the height of the storm. Shortly after lunchtime, repairs were complete.

In the town of Raymond, 4.42 inches of rain were recorded. That was impressive, but the only record that was broken was at the Portland International Jetport, where 2.67 inches of rain fell. That crushed the previous record of 1.76 inches set in 1871, according to Hawley.

In Auburn, torrents of water through sewer lines were blamed for a mysterious odor that forced the evacuation of an apartment house and businesses in the New Auburn section of the city.

One woman was examined for a headache, and the source of the stench was never found. Fire officials believe heavy rain merely forced sewage along at a quicker pace and those in New Auburn, where the sludge settled, had the misfortune of smelling it.

A construction project along a stretch of the Maine Turnpike between Sabattus and West Gardiner was delayed because of the feisty weather, state officials said.

Calmer, drier days were forecast for the weekend.