A woman looks out Tuesday at the flooding of Gardiner’s Maine Avenue in the aftermath of Monday’s storm. Anna Chadwick/Morning Sentinel

Monday’s powerful wind and rain storm delivered an economic punch to many Maine businesses, which had to deal with issues ranging from retail locations losing internet service to ski areas watching their snow cover melt away just days before the start of the holiday vacation week.

Among those hardest hit were ski areas, where heavy rain and wind melted snow and damaged equipment and roads. Sunday River ski area in Newry said in a Facebook post Tuesday that it will be closed Wednesday because of storm damage, and other resorts will be closed as well.

Heavy rain and flash flooding washed away a portion of Summit Road leading to the Sunday River Grand Summit Hotel and Conference Center on Monday afternoon. The resort did not provide details on how extensive the damage was, but said roads leading to the resort were being assessed with an eye toward resuming snowmaking. The resort said it will provide daily updates on plans to reopen.

Pleasant Mountain in Bridgton was closed Monday and Tuesday because of the storm and will also be closed for skiing on Wednesday, adding in a Facebook post that “we plan to fire up the snowmaking tonight and give Mother Nature a helping hand. Lifts will be back up and running on Thursday, Dec. 21.”

Sugarloaf Mountain in Carrabassett Valley said on Facebook that it suffered some damage to roads and infrastructure on the mountain as well as to its campus, but that it also plans to reopen Thursday. “The crew has been hard at work and could use one more day to work their magic in preparation for resuming operations on Thursday, 12/21.”

“We fared pretty well all things considered. Today (Tuesday) was about putting the pieces back together, working with road crews and our ops team to ensure when we do open, it’s safe for both employees and guests,” Sugarloaf said in a statement on its website.

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The storm also produced widespread internet outages that made it difficult for some businesses to process transactions. Customers who visited the Maine Mall Hannaford supermarket Tuesday said the outage disrupted the use of credit and debit cards, forcing some customers to pay in cash.

Caitlin Cortelyou, spokesperson for Hannaford, confirmed Tuesday evening that several Hannaford stores in Maine lost internet service on Tuesday because of the storm. Cortelyou did not say how many stores were affected, and was unable confirm if customers were able to use credit and other cards to pay for food and supplies.

Spectrum, the broadband connectivity company that provides internet and TV services in Maine, said many businesses and homes lost internet service.

The Gould Academy competition center at Sunday River in Newry sits Tuesday filled with mud and ice after Monday’s devastating wind and rainstorm. Andree Kehn/Sun Journal

Lara Pritchard, vice president of communications for Charter Communications, which owns Spectrum, did not offer exact internet outage numbers, but said “our numbers are very closely aligned with commercial power outages, since that’s driving the majority of service interruptions.” More than 239,000 Central Maine Power Company customers were still without power as of 7:15 p.m. Tuesday.

“Wherever there are commercial power outages, customers will have an interruption of our service. If there is an outage, once power resumes, our services will come back online,” Pritchard said. “If there’s power within the home, and our service is out, there may be an outage impacting the network hub that services the street, so our service will restore once power resumes to that location.”

Pritchard said the storm caused physical network damage in some areas served by Spectrum, but that restoration crews will not be allowed to evaluate the damage until utilities have a chance to assess the dangers and declare an area safe for Spectrum teams.

“Any debris, fallen trees, closed roads, must also be cleared in some locations before our teams can access the network,” Pritchard said. “Safety is a priority and we have been at the ready to access and investigate any damage to our own infrastructure, once permitted.”

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