Driving rain and blustery winds hit much of Maine Sunday, knocking out power for customers of Central Maine Power and Emera Maine.
But by noon Monday morning, nearly 19,000 of the 25,000 CMP customers who had lost power Sunday were back on line. Waldo and Hancock counties remained the hardest hit with 1,198 and 1,263 customers still without power.
A total of 28,803 Emera Maine customers were without power late Sunday night. By 12:15 p.m. Monday 15,495 were still waiting for service to be restored.
Tom Hawley, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said that Sunday’s brought a high temperature of 52 degrees to Portland along with 2.09 inches of rain. The rainfall record in Portland for the date is 3.56 inches on Jan. 10, 1977.
Other towns in southern and coastal Maine got soaked as well. Hawley said Standish received 2.48 inches of rain; Gorham, 2.4 inches; Hollis, 2.4 inches; Wells, 1.85 inches; and Rockport, 2.77 inches.
The storm produced high winds and gusts topping 50 mph with multiple reports of trees and wires falling into Maine roads, including in North Yarmouth, Thomaston, Lisbon, Woolwich, Rumford and Brunswick. Several roads in North Yarmouth were closed after they flooded. Hawley said a gust hit 51 mph in Greenville, 48 mph in Augusta and 47 mph in Portland.
West Pownal Road in North Yarmouth was closed Monday because of high water, as is Blackstrap Road in Falmouth between Davis and Hamlin, until the Maine Department of Transportation can inspect a bridge that had water over it, according to officials.
Cumberland County Emergency Management Agency reported no major problems Monday morning.
“There wer ea lot of areas last nigh with water over the road, probably about a dozen places in Cumberland County,” said Cumberland County emergency management agency director Jim Budway.
Monday is expected to be much colder with temperatures in the 30s in southern Maine.
The weather service is forecasting snow for Tuesday night.
Portland will see only 1 or 2 inches of snow, but Bangor and northern parts of the state could get more than 6 inches.
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