Thousands of Maine households lost power Tuesday morning as strong, gusty winds made their way across the state.

A bulk of the outages — which peaked near 15,000 — were reported in Somerset, Piscataquis and Cumberland counties, according to Central Maine Power.

Much of southern, central and western Maine was under a wind advisory Tuesday morning, according to the National Weather Service. The alert said wind gusts could reach up to 50 mph, which could blow down trees and tree branches and affect driving conditions.

Some communities in Hancock, Washington and Penobscot counties were expecting winds between 20 to 30 mph with gusts up to 60 mph, according to the weather service.

More than 7,000 outages were reported statewide as of 10:30 a.m., according to CMP, with about half of those in Penobscot County.

Source: Central Maine Power

While Cumberland County had more than 5,000 outages earlier Tuesday, the majority of them had been restored before 11 a.m.

Versant Power, which covers northern and eastern Maine, reported about 2,500 outages as of 11 a.m.

CMP and Versant Power announced Monday that both companies had extra crews on hand in anticipation of the high winds. CMP noted that its crews cannot go up in bucket trucks when wind gusts exceed 30 mph.

The high winds and outages followed a widespread flood watch Monday, as heavy rainfall and melting snow were expected to cause river flooding and runoff through Tuesday.

Meteorologists at the time warned that the rain would soften the thawing ground and make it easier for trees to fall when the gusty winds blew in that evening.