Old Man Winter hit Lincoln County with a one-two punch last week that downed trees, snapped utility poles, severed wires and plunged more than 10,000 electric power customers into darkness.
“Basically, we were hit with a Class 1 hurricane,” said Tim Pellerin, Lincoln County’s Emergency Management Agency director.
Thursday’s weather was “not normal” said Andy Pohl, a National Weather Service meteorologist.
Preliminary damage estimates by local fire and town officials put the county damage totals at $320,785, Pellerin said.
Communities sustaining the most damage include Wiscasset ($69,200), Edgecomb ($47,500), Newcastle ($31,473) and Waldoboro ($25,000).
Pellerin said the preliminary estimates are being forwarded to state officials. They will seek a federal emergency declaration by President Barack Obama making communities eligible for federal disaster funds.
“We were lucky and we were not lucky,” said Pellerin. “We were lucky it wasn’t terribly cold. We were unlucky because the winds were higher then predicted.”
The first punch was landed Thursday morning, Feb. 25, when the Midcoast was lashed with about five inches of rain that flooded streams, filled drainage ditches, threatened culverts and soaked the ground.
Near hurricane winds, measured at a sustained 51 miles per hour with gusts to 69 mph were reported to the weather service from an observer at Pemaquid Point. Winds that reach 74 mph are classified as hurricane strength. In Maine, the highest recorded wind gust hit 94 mph. at Cape Elizabeth, Pohl said.
The combination of saturated ground and powerful gusting winds pushed over huge trees that quickly blocked roads, pulled down wires and snapped some utility poles cutting off electric power.
A Central Maine Power spokeswoman said more than 240 utility poles were snapped by the storm.
At the peak of the storm there were 26,000 Lincoln County electric meters out of service. That is 82 percent of the county’s electric customers in Central Maine Power’s Brunswick district, said Pellerin.
Emergency management officials, concerned that residents could be left in the cold, opened eight warming shelters in town fire stations and YMCA in Damariscotta and Boothbay. The Wiscasset community was opened for residents needing overnight shelter. Pellerin said there were no overnight customers.
By Monday evening, all but 200 customers had been restored.
Pellerin praised CMP for their coordination with local officials and for calling in repair crews from as far away as New Brunswick, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
Although driving rains preceding the windstorm washed out some roads, no injuries have been reported.
Dozens of volunteer firefighters and town highway workers spent hundreds of man hours clearing brush, sawing trees, and opening roads.
Several main roads were blocked for several hours by downed trees and power lines. These included Rt. 129 in South Bristol, the River Road in Newcastle and Rt. 27 in Boothbay. Power crews, town workers and volunteer firefighters helped clear the roads.
On the first 24 hours of the storm, the county communications center dispatched 182 calls to emergency workers.
In Edgecomb, the Town Hall, built in 1794, was damaged when the tall brick chimney toppled over damaging the roof. The power went off, the heat stopped and the basement flooded.
The Lincoln County Courthouse also sustained some roof damage.
At 9 p.m. Thursday Mona and Ginny Knight were startled when more than a dozen trees began to fall in a woods around their tiny cottage on the Middle Rd. in South Bristol.
“I never heard nothing like it before. It was like ‘thumph,’ like the sound when they are blasting,” said Mona.
Mona and Ginny lost their heat and were in the dark until they were able to borrow a kerosene heater. Power came back on Sunday, she said.
“It was like a hurricane on the coast,” she said.
On Friday, Coveside Rd. in South Bristol was blocked with nearly a dozen trees that ripped power lines apart.
Tom and Mary Moody stood with Fire Chief Robert “Mitch” Mitchell as a hot electric wire hummed and spewed flame as it touched the ground.
Over their heads, in a nearby tree, not far from their garage, another hot wire sparked and tried to set the damp boughs on fire.
“I would like to go over and get my Thunderbird out of the garage,” Moody asked Mitchell.
“Not a good idea. If that wire came down, it could be trouble,” said the fire chief.
In Newcastle, Fire Chief Clayton Huntley said Mitchell gave the Moodys good advice.
“Those wires on the ground are ‘widow makers.'” he said.
