AUGUSTA —  A slow-moving nor’easter has dumped a blanket of snow on much of Maine this weekend, knocking out power to more than 108,700 customers in southern and central Maine.

By Saturday evening, Central Maine Power was reporting that about 65,000 customers were without power, as the company’s crews were working to restore service.

But by about 4:25 p.m., that number had risen to 66,144 across CMP’s service area. Of those, 7,268 customers without power were in Kennebec County, mostly in communities west of Interstate 95, where snowfall totals were higher.

In a news release issued Saturday afternoon, Kerri Therriault, CMP senior director of Electric Operations said in restoring power, the company’s priority is working with county emergency management officials to clear roads of downed lines and debris so emergency vehicles can pass.

“Given the travel and access challenges, along with the extent of damage to the system from tree limbs weighing down our lines from the heavy, wet snow,” Therriault said, “this will be a multiple day restoration effort and some customers may be out of power until late Monday evening or early Tuesday in some of the hardest hit, more remote areas.”

Therriault said the company will continue to update estimated restoration times as the system damage gets assessed.

Catharine Hartnett, spokeswoman for CMP, said in some areas, the roads had not yet been plowed, so crews haven’t been able to assess damage or provide restoration times.

“We are out there all day today, we’ll be out there all night and we will continue working to address all of them and get times updated for folks,” she said.

The outages ranged at one point from 43 in Albion and several dozen in Augusta to 640 in Belgrade, 314 in Litchfield, and 1,085 in Mount Vernon. Farther west and north, 3,807 outages were reported in Franklin County, including 343 in Farmington; and 3,084 in Somerset County, with 167 in Cornville, 182 in Hartland, 248 in Mercer, 726 in Norridgewock, 179 in Skowhegan and 303 in Starks.

The storm, which first moved into the area Thursday night, had dropped a few inches of heavy, wet snow near and on the coast of the Maine, with higher accumulations — some dramatically higher — farther inland.

“It can change a lot in just a few miles,” Jerry Combs, a meteorologist from the National Weather Service in Gray, said on Saturday.

By mid-afternoon in central Maine, 23 inches of snow had fallen in New Vineyard, in Franklin County, and 9.2 inches in the Somerset County town of Skowhegan, though the Skowhegan total was as of 11 a.m. Freedom, in Waldo County, was reported to have had 8 ½ inches as of 2 p.m. and Farmington, in Franklin County, had 20 inches as of 2:30 p.m.

Combs said snow showers were expected to continue Saturday night through Sunday, and particularly in Somerset County, snow is expected to continue into Monday.

By mid-afternoon Saturday, about 9.3 inches of snow had fallen by midday and an inch or so more was expected.

For all the snowfall, few accidents were reported.

Shannon Moss, public information officer for the Maine Department of Public Safety, said she wasn’t aware of any storm-related issues.

Art True, emergency management director for Kennebec County, said people have been able to get out.

“It’s nothing more than a normal sticky snowstorm,” True said.

The Waterville Police Department reported vehicles had slid off roads but there were no serious crashes, and there were some reports of wires down. A Somerset County Sheriff’s Department dispatcher reported the department had been very busy with several vehicle crashes, but none were major. There were several reports of trees and wires down, he said.

Whether the entire region will see a white Christmas is still up in the air.

Combs said as the storm moves out Sunday and Monday, the temperature across the region will be in the mid-30s with the sun breaking through Monday with breezy conditions. On Tuesday and Wednesday, sunny conditions with temperatures in the mid-30s are expected.

Though clouds are forecast to return Thursday with the next weather system, Combs said it’s too soon to know yet whether the precipitation those clouds bring will come as rain or snow.

Morning Sentinal Staff Writer Amy Calder contributed to this report. 

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