Severe thunderstorms tore through York County on Friday evening, leaving thousands without power.
Tens of thousands of Mainers lost power as trees and utility poles were knocked down by powerful winds and lightning strikes. Crews are now cleaning up the mess that it left behind.
Severe storms knocked down several trees and killed the power for areas around Saco.
“All the roads have sticks, leaves, twigs on the road,” said Dylan Mason from Saco Parks and Recreation.
Residents on Lillian Avenue say they lost power around 5 p.m. Friday when the storm tore through their neighborhood.
Lillian Ave is a dead-end street, which puts more pressure on crews to clear the roadway in case emergency vehicles need to get by.
“Any kind of emergency down here and people have to get out of their houses,” said Mason.
“This was some of the hardest rain and wind we’ve seen in such a short amount of time,” said Sgt. Adam Shaw from the Wells Police Department.
In Wells, lightning was to blame for te closure of Route 9.
“It appears there was a lightning strike that took off the top half of a tree, as well as halfway down the tree,” said Shaw. “It fell across the wires, when it fell across the wires, there were two other poles that actually got snapped.”
That roadway was re-opened late Friday night, but Central Maine Power (CMP) will be working for several more hours restoring power to the area.
Police are asking folks to avoid these downed trees and power lines to keep everyone safe.
“Get too close to it, now you’re putting yourself at risk,” said Shaw.
With thousands of outages, officials are reminding folks that CMP will likely be working through the night, even if debris has been cleared.