BANGOR, Maine — High winds in much of Maine on Thursday resulted in power outages for thousands of customers, most of them in western, southern and coastal Maine.
At 6 p.m., more than 3,600 Central Maine Power customers and nearly 700 Emera Maine accounts were without service, according to each utility’s online outage maps.
Two hours later, however, repair crews from both companies had made some headway in getting customers back online, with CMP’s total down to about 1,900 and Emera’s to under 300.
Emera Maine said its crews dealt with power outages across Penobscot County. With windy conditions and powerful gusts expected throughout the evening, customers were advised to prepare for the possibility of additional outages.
According to the National Weather Service, winds were expected to continue to gust to 50 mph through Thursday evening, which was expected to result in some difficult driving conditions.
Forecasters also warned that strong winds could toss loose objects, snap small tree limbs and blow sand and debris from roads and parking lots, affecting pedestrians.
Meanwhile in northern, eastern, Down East and parts of western Maine, wind gusts of up to 45 mph combined with brief heavy snow showers were expected to lead to reduced visibility. Brief whiteouts were expected.
Very cold air and windy conditions are expected to persist into the weekend, forecasters said.
Wind chills late Friday night into Saturday will range from near 30 below in the western mountains and along the international border to zero to 15 below over southern and coastal sections, the weather service said. Northwest winds on Saturday may gust between 30 and 40 mph.
In Portland, high winds blew over a spruce tree onto a home, according to WGME.
Homeowner Daniel Szatkowski told the station his children at first thought their dog knocked the bookshelf over. No one was injured.
Szatkowski said there’s some structural damage including three or four holes in the roof.