Kennebec County communities are working on cleanup after two lines of strong thunderstorms went through the area Thursday afternoon, knocking down trees and power lines along the way.

More than 4,100 Central Maine Power customers lost power Thursday during the storm, which “met severe criteria,” according to meteorologist Andy Pohl, of the National Weather Service in Gray. Kennebec County still had 167 customers without power at 10:30 a.m. Friday, mostly in Readfield, according to its website.

The power company expected to have all the outages fixed by mid-afternoon Friday, CMP spokeswoman Gail Rice said.

There were reports of trees and wires down in the Augusta area, as well as Waterville, Vassalboro, Winslow and Belgrade.

Waterville’s Public Works Department was spending the day Friday cleaning up the debris around the city. About a dozen trees fell, according to Public Works Director Mark Turner. A willow tree fell onto a vehicle at a house on Summer Street but seemed to cause only scratches, while another tree fell onto a porch at a house on Bronze Place, Turner said.

Most of the branches and debris seem to have fallen in the southern section of the city, on Moody Street, Water Street and Kennedy Memorial Drive, as well as Pine Grove Cemetery.

“I think it was a very narrow stormburst that came through,” Turner said. He said the public works crew started cleaning Thursday night and was continuing Friday. Once the roads were all clear, they will be cleaning up the cemetery, he said.

Everything is cleaned up in Vassalboro, Fire Chief Eric Rowe said. Two trees fell on Priest Hill Road, he said, and that was the worst of it. Also, a house on Main Street was struck by lightning, but it hit the chimney and traveled down to the hearth, only breaking apart some concrete, so “everything was fine,” Rowe said.

Winslow had some minor flooding because of leaves and debris clogging the storm drains, as well as limbs down in Fort Halifax park, said Town Manager Mike Heavener. A tree limb went through the roof on a house on China Road near Rite Aid, he said, but he didn’t know of any other severe property damage.

“We have considerable tree damage in Fort Halifax Park, but fortunately there was no property damage,” Heavener said. The Parks and Recreation department will begin cleaning up the tree branches in the park Friday.

The storm, while powerful, wasn’t anything unusual for the summertime.

“We get quite a few throughout the summer,” Pohl said. He said the weather service is expecting a possibility of showers and isolated thunderstorms later today coming from New Hampshire, but “not like that.” The next chance of precipitation will be Sunday into Monday, but as of now it isn’t expected to be severe, he said.

Madeline St. Amour — 861-9239

mstamour@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @madelinestamour

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