A walker braces against rain Wednesday along North Street in Waterville. The rain and wind storm that continued into Wednesday night caused thousands of power outages across Maine, according to officials. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel
A rain and wind storm that blew through central Maine on Wednesday downed many trees and power lines, and knocked out electricity to thousands of homes and businesses across the state.
Officials in the Somerset County town of Skowhegan were particularly busy dealing with storm-related problems.
“We had quite a few calls from trees down, power lines down, a lot of power outages,” Capt. Rick Caldwell of the Skowhegan Fire Department said Thursday. “Some of them created a couple of road closures for a while — big trees.”
The Central Maine Power Co. website early Thursday showed 17,036 outages in Maine, with 2,595 in Kennebec County, 2,193 in Waldo County, 286 in Somerset County and 48 in Franklin County.
Waterville was apparently spared major problems. Battalion Chief John Gromek of the city’s Fire Department said Thursday no damage was reported due to downed trees or power lines.
Chief Scott Dunbar of the Augusta Fire Department also said the city experienced no apparent problems related to the storm.
A telephone call seeking comment Thursday from an official with the Kennebec County Emergency Management Agency was not returned.
Manchester was the Kennebec County community reporting the most rain from the storm, with 1.7 inches, according to the National Weather Service. Augusta received about 1.2 inches and Waterville slightly more than an inch.
The most rainfall in Maine was recorded in Albany Township, in Oxford County, with almost 3 inches.
Wind gusts reached 45 mph in Augusta and 37 mph in Waterville, according to the National Weather Service.
In Somerset County, Jackman and Norridgewock also reported gusts up to 37 mph.
The strongest winds in the state were recorded in Portland, where some parts of the city reported gusts reaching 64 mph.
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