CARIBOU, Maine — Heavy rain continued to fall throughout the state Thursday and southwestern Maine remained under a flood watch set to expire at midnight.
In effect through much of Thursday, flood watches were dropped for northern and eastern Maine by Thursday evening.
National Weather Service meteorologist Vic Nouhan said Thursday night that most parts of Maine will see a three-day total of 2 to 4 inches of rain by the time the stormy weather winds down on Friday. Nouhan said, however, that a few locales could see as much as 5 inches over the same period.
As of 8 p.m., flood watches remained in effect until midnight Thursday for parts of western Maine, including parts of Cumberland, Waldo, York, Androscoggin, Somerset, Kennebec, Knox, Franklin, Oxford and Lincoln counties.
Motorists were urged to use caution on wet highways. State police reported two minor accidents on Interstate 395 early Thursday, a dispatcher said.
One accident occurred in the eastbound lanes and another in the westbound lane, the dispatcher said, and nobody was injured. Traffic was briefly backed up.
Those who are flying in the area on Friday should check with airports to see if the weather has resulted in delays, Bangor International Airport recommended on its Flight Status Web page.
Passengers on a 5:50 p.m. US Airways flight from Bangor to Philadelphia on Thursday were told to expect delays at their destination airport because of weather conditions and air traffic. Additional delays are possible Friday.
Central Maine Power reported on its website Thursday afternoon more than 1,000 customers, including 569 in York County, were without power, while Emera Maine checked in at 382 outages shortly after 1 p.m.
By 6 p.m., however, the number of outages had dwindled to 174, 130 of which were in Somerset County, according to CMP’s outage website.
Meanwhile, Emera Maine’s online outage map was showing 13 customers without power, more than half of them in Township 17 Range 5.
Bangor Daily News writer Ryan McLaughlin contributed to this report.