More than 10,000 customers lost power on the afternoon of Easter Sunday as gusty winds blew across Maine, with most of them in Penobscot, Aroostook, Hancock, Washington and Piscataquis counties.
During the height of the outages, around 3:35 p.m., Versant Power reported a total of 9,931 statewide, and Central Maine Power reported another 2,644.
“We are monitoring gusty winds through today,” CMP said on Facebook. “Our crews are prepared to respond in our communities across the state.”
Penobscot County was the most heavily hit, with 3,017 outages in Versant territory and another 675 in CMP territory, according to the utilities.
In Versant territory, another 2,231 customers lost power in Aroostook County, and 2,041 lost power in Washington County.
Hancock and Piscataquis counties had 2,055 and 1,354 outages, respectively, with many of those Versant customers.
Smaller numbers of outages were reported in every other Maine county, as well.
By 7:30 p.m., the total number of outages statewide had fallen below 8,000.
Officials also warned of a high risk for fires because of the windy, dry weather in Maine on Sunday.