Aug. 4 – On Sunday morning, about 6,000 Central Maine Power customers in eight counties woke up to power outages as storms swept through parts of southern and central Maine, but it wasn’t all because of the rain.
The morning began with about 750 outages due to thunderstorm activity and increased to more than 3,000 after nesting ospreys disturbed power lines in Camden.
Osprey activity knocked out power to about 3,200 homes and businesses in Knox County, CMP spokesman Jon Breed said. Crews had restored most outages in Knox County by 11:30 a.m.
Knox County had the most outages reported Sunday morning and Cumberland had 382 customers without power. Kennebec County had just under 10 customers without power.
The company has been updating its list of power cuts throughout the morning, which is available online.
By Sunday afternoon, most outages had been restored and the number had dropped to 651 by 1 p.m.
Then the number rose again to 1,990 around 1:45 p.m. due to a downed tree in Franklin County, Breed said.
Crews had restored most of the reported outages as of 5pm Sunday and there were 616 customers still without power. Breed said a total of about 6,000 customers lost power Sunday because of ospreys and storms.
Meanwhile, the Westbrook Fire Department told commuters on Facebook Sunday morning to avoid the area of William Clark Drive and Mechanic Street. “The flooding caused several cars to stall or hydroplan,” the department said.
A dispatcher confirmed the floodwaters had been cleared and the road was reopened around noon.
The National Weather Service in Gray has issued a flash flood warning for parts of Cumberland and York counties until 10 a.m. Sunday.
Assistant Web Editor Amber Carter contributed to this report.
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