As Mainers braced for a short but intense winter storm Tuesday afternoon, several cities declared parking bans.
The storm started causing driving problems just as the evening commute got underway, and the Maine Turnpike dropped its speed limit to 45 mph.
The storm hits as the state is still recovering from Sunday night’s big rainstorm.
West Pownal Road in North Yarmouth reopened just before noon Tuesday after being submerged by the Chandler River throughout the day Monday. Motorists were urged to navigate the area carefully because the receding water left a coat of ice on parts of the road.
Meanwhile, utility crews for Emera Maine, which serves northern and eastern Maine, restored power to many of its customers on Tuesday. Just after 4 p.m., it still had 4,064 customers without electricity, but by 9:25 p.m. the number was down to 520, mostly in Hancock County. About 30,000 Emera Maine customers were without electricity at the height of Sunday’s rainstorm. Outside crews have swelled the number of repair crews to four times the usual staffing, the company said. Those crews will remain on standby through the snowstorm, which is expected to end Wednesday.
Central Maine Power Co. had restored power to all but 262 customers by noon Tuesday, down from a high of about 25,000 during Sunday’s storm. By 9 p.m. Tuesday, it had no reported outages.
The National Weather Service in Gray issued a winter weather advisory Tuesday for southern Maine, which was expected to receive 2 to 4 inches of snow by about 1 a.m. Wednesday.
Portland, Lewiston and Brunswick declared parking bans for Tuesday night.
“With a forecast of 3 to 4 inches coupled with freezing temps the rest of this week and a larger storm coming on Saturday night, we are calling a citywide parking ban tonight to get the streets clear,” City Manager Jon Jennings said in a statement announcing Portland’s parking ban.
Farther north, stretching from Franklin to Kennebec and Waldo counties, communities can expect up to 8 inches of snow. The weather service issued a winter storm warning for that area, with periods of heavy snow and wind gusts up to 35 mph in the forecast.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.