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Nearly 380,000 Mainers have been left without power and at least two are confirmed dead after a wind storm lashed Maine on Monday.
As of 1 p.m., Central Maine Power Co. reported 291,189 outages across its service area, with the highest numbers in Androscoggin, Cumberland and York counties. Meanwhile, Versant Power reported 88,299 outages. That’s down from more than 420,000 early Tuesday morning.
While falling short of the severity of outages from the wind storm of 2017, nearly half of Maine awoke Tuesday in the dark.
It’s unclear how long the outages will persist, but Versant Power said in a Tuesday morning alert that it could take days to restore power to everyone.
The lingering effects of the storm have closed schools all across Maine, including in Bangor, and prompted some city and town governments to postpone reopening as the cleanup begins. Gov. Janet Mills ordered all state government offices to remain closed rather than open at noon as previously anticipated.
“With significant damage from yesterday’s storm, including extensive power outages, road closures and flooding, I am closing State office buildings for the entirety of today,” Mills said. “My Administration remains in close contact with Maine’s county emergency management agencies and with our electric utilities. We are expecting a multi-day recovery effort at this point, and, for now, we continue to strongly encourage people, especially those in more heavily impacted areas, to stay off the roads to give crews the space they need to clear debris and restore power as quickly as possible.”
The worst of the wind blew out of Maine late Monday night, and some showers will linger into the day on Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service office in Caribou.
The heavy rain has created a high flood risk across Piscataquis and Penobscot counties. Some residents in Brownville Junction were evacuated early Tuesday morning because of flooding along the banks of the Pleasant River. The Piscataquis River reached its fourth-highest crest on record, dating back to 1902, in Dover-Foxcroft on Tuesday morning, according to the weather service.
Emergency management officials warned of extensive road closures from downed trees and wires, and advised Mainers not to drive around barricades.
So far, at least two deaths have been confirmed from the storm. A man was killed in Fairfield when he was hit by a tree felled by the storm as it tried to move it with a tractor. Another man died when he was hit by a tree while clearing storm debris from his home in Windham.
As the cleanup proceeds, Mainers can expect daytime temperatures to remain warm by December standards, with the mercury hovering in the mid-40s. But temperatures will begin to fall below freezing by nightfall, according to the weather station in Caribou.
Monday saw some temperature records broken in Bangor, Caribou, Houlton and Millinocket, as well as precipitation records in Bangor, Caribou and Houlton. In Bangor, the highs reached 61 degrees Fahrenheit, breaking the record of 53 degrees set on the same day in 1954. Bangor saw a record 2.52 inches of rain, exceeding the record for the date of 0.68 inches, set in 1975, according to the weather service.