Over 700 Lincoln County households are still without power at press time in the wake of Tropical Storm Irene, which pummeled the area with high winds and heavy rainfall on Sun., Aug. 28.
Crews from Central Maine Power (CMP) have been hard at work in an effort to restore power, but even those efforts won’t bring relief to all Lincoln County residents until Thursday, according to the latest CMP estimate.
When the storm chugged out of town Sunday night, every town in Lincoln County with the exception of Monhegan was reporting power outages. The towns of Bremen, Dresden, Jefferson, Nobleboro, Waldoboro, Westport and Wiscasset were particularly hard hit, according to CMP. When the sun rose on Monday morning, CMP reported 7144 Lincoln County households without power.
That number has declined steadily as CMP initiated restoration efforts on Monday not only for Lincoln County, but also for the 188,000 households statewide that lost power.
The total number of Lincoln County households still without power as of 9 a.m. on Wednesday morning was 768, according to CMP.
Irene brought more than power outages when she swept through.
Firefighters and law enforcement officers were kept busy throughout Sunday as high winds and heavy rainfall blew over trees, flooded low lying areas and contributed to conditions that caused several traffic collisions. One of the traffic collisions that occurred during the storm was on Rt. 17 near Peaslee’s Quik Stop and resulted in serious injuries to two women. It is unknown at this time how much effect the weather may have had on that collision.
Fallen trees, often entangled in electrical wires, closed 31 roads during the height of the storm, according to the Lincoln County Emergency Management Agency (LCEMA). These trees couldn’t be cleared away until CMP crews were able to safeguard the wires, leading to long waits before the roads could be opened. By Monday morning 22 roads were still closed.
Access to the town of Somerville on Monday was limited to one road, Rt. 105/206 via Rt. 17. Somerville Fire Chief Mike Dostie said that “just about every road” in Somerville was blocked by debris on Monday.
An estimated 90 percent of Somerville was without power on Monday morning, and during the day the town lost phone service, according to Chief Dostie. Power was restored to Somerville residents on Tuesday, according to CMP.
As power outages increased through the day of Sunday, the Wiscasset Emergency Management Agency (WEMA) opened a shelter in the Wiscasset Community Center, according to WEMA Director Roland Abbott. The shelter was open to any resident in Lincoln County who might require shelter assistance, Abbott said. The number of people who utilized the shelter was unknown at press time.
Waldoboro area children enjoyed an unusual “storm day” on Monday when School Administrative District (SAD) 40, which includes the Miller School, Medomak Middle School and Medomak Valley High School in Waldoboro, postponed the first day of school until Tuesday.
