Maine News Updates

High winds Saturday were downing trees and pulling down power lines  across the state, leaving at least 16,500 Central Maine Power customers in the dark by mid-afternoon with the wind still blowing.

In Somerset, Franklin, Kennebec counties and across Maine, the winds also were triggering  electrical fires that spread to the utility poles and trees.   Among the hardest hit areas in central Maine were the service area around Farmington with 2,200 outages reported by about 3 p.m. and the Skowhegan service area with about 2,700 customers in the dark.  Augusta’s service area has a reported 900 outages, Fairfield has 300,
and Portland, 1,000, according to a CMP spokesman.

In Winslow, at about 2:30 p.m., a transformer blew and started an electrical fire behind the substation on Benton Avenue while another line was on fire on Wyman Avenue, a fire dispatcher said.

In Somerset County, fire departments were working to clear trees and branches in multiple towns including Skowhegan, Hartland, Norridgewock, and Fairfield. In Franklin County, damage was reported in New Vineyard, Rangeley, Weld, Wyman Township, Kingfield, Strong and Jay.  In northern Kennebec, trees or line down were reported in Sidney, Winslow, Oakland and Waterville, according to county dispatchers.

A National Weather Service wind advisory is in effect until 7 p.m. The weather service advises strong and gusty winds could produce gusts of 40 to 50 miles per hour today. The service warns winds that strong could bring down trees and large limbs, and could cause scattered power outages.