The rainy, windy weather that pummeled the state all day Thursday wound up leaving large swaths of people in the dark, including much of Hancock County and downtown Belfast.
“High winds and falling trees and limbs have caused more than 3,000 outages in Hancock County on Thursday afternoon. Additional Emera Maine crews have been sent to coastal areas to repair scattered damage,” according to a statement on the electric utility’s website. “A number of downed lines have been reported, so the public is reminded to never touch a downed power line or a tree in contact with a downed line.”
At 5 p.m. nearly 2,000 customers were without power in Waldo County, with most of those in Belfast, Islesboro and Searsmont, where more than half of customers had lost their electricity. Outages had been reported in Androscoggin, Cumberland, Hancock, Kennebec, Knox, Lincoln, Penobscot and York counties, according to Central Maine Power.
In downtown Belfast, entire blocks were shrouded in darkness on Thursday afternoon, including stores, restaurants, offices and homes. City Councilor Eric Sanders, also affected by the outage, joked about the situation at his own house.
“My son, Chase is unable to play his Xbox during midterms. He’s unable to play Fortnite,” Sanders said, referring to the popular video game. “It’s a crisis in the Sanders household.”