Photo / Peter Van Allen
A downed telephone pole closed Fort Road in South Portland.
October 18, 2019
Maine businesses, residents still reeling Friday after 'bomb cyclone'
Photo / Peter Van Allen
A fallen tree limb blocked a sidewalk on Yarmouth's Main Street Thursday morning.
By Staff
After a nor’easter swept through Maine early Thursday and downed power lines, many businesses and residents were still without electricity Friday morning.
Central Maine Power Co., which powers about 600,000 customers, reported that 93,000 of them had no service at 11 a.m. That was a reduction from 113,000 a few hours earlier and 180,000 at the height of the rain and wind storm.
CMP’s website indicated that nearly half the outages Friday morning were in Cumberland County, with 44,000 of 166,000 CMP customers there still in the dark. Cape Elizabeth, Falmouth, Harpswell, Portland and South Portland were especially hard hit.
Emera Maine, the electric utility serving 160,000 customers in eastern and northern Maine, reported outages affecting roughly 13,000 customers at 11 a.m. Most were concentrated in the Downeast region, especially in island communities.
The “bomb cyclone,” whose wind gusts topped 50 mph in many parts of the state, played havoc with businesses.
Streets in many communities were blocked by fallen trees, preventing commuters from getting to work. Schools were closed, and offices and stores could not open because of the lack of electricity.
In Cape Elizabeth, nearly all commercial activity came to a standstill, with an IGA supermarket, a CVS drug store, gas stations and other businesses closed.
In Falmouth, more than a dozen boats ran aground, the harbormaster said.
The annual conference of the Bioscience Association of Maine, scheduled for Thursday in Portland, was cancelled because of power problems on the University of Southern Maine campus, the industry meeting’s venue. No information about a new date was immediately available.
On Friday, Southern Maine Community College cancelled an open house scheduled for Saturday because of ongoing power disruptions at its South Portland campus.
CMP President and CEO Doug Herling said in a news release Thursday that some customers "may be without power for several days." About 200 line crews were working to restore electricity service, and another 200 from outside Maine were expected to pitch in beginning Friday morning, according to the release.
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