By Greg Latimer and Dominik Lobkowicz
Winter has made a grand entrance in Lincoln County, with two snowstorms and an ice storm battering the area within a seven-day period.
Christmas lights shine through a tree coated with ice at First Federal Bank in Damariscotta. (Paula Roberts photo)
The most recent event, an ice storm that began Dec. 22 and continued into the evening of Dec. 23, left more than 6500 Lincoln County customers without power the morning after the storm, according to Central Maine Power.
As of 7:21 a.m., Whitefield and Somerville were entirely without power and 98 percent or more of Dresden and Jefferson customers were also experiencing outages, according to CMP’s website. In total, over 24 percent of the county’s CMP customers were without power.
Beginning in the early morning hours of Sunday, the ice storm spread light precipitation in subfreezing temperatures, with the first part of the storm beginning early Sunday and ending late Sunday with the second part of the storm beginning early Monday and extending late into the evening.
An Ice Storm Warning issued by the National Weather Service was initiated Saturday and continued through Monday afternoon.
Following the storm, the NWS has issued a Special Weather Statement for Dec. 24 warning of more downed limbs and power lines as winds pick up through the day.
Northwest winds reaching 10 to 15 miles per hour with gusts of 20 to 25 miles per hour could bring down more heavily iced tree limbs and lines, the statement warned.
Aside from the power outages and a number of minor vehicle accidents, no major incidents were reported during the ice storm as of holiday deadline, according to the Lincoln County Emergency Management Agency.
However, sections of Routes 126, 32 and 215 in Jefferson didn’t get sanded after one of the state sand trucks broke down, leading to dangerous conditions, according to Jefferson Fire Department Chief Walter Morris.
“It was a good couple hours before they could get anything else over there, so it was a sheet of ice,” Morris said.
Cars were “sliding all over the place” and getting stuck, Morris said, but no serious injuries were reported. Jefferson Fire and Rescue ended up shutting down Route 126 near the intersection with Route 215 because of dangerous conditions, Morris said.
Road closures dotted the county throughout the ice storm due to downed trees and wires.
Another storm that left up to a foot of snow in Lincoln County visited the area overnight Dec. 17.
While there were numerous school and business closings and delays following that event on Wednesday, no major incidents or power outages were reported.
The first winter storm of the season arrived Dec. 14 and continued into Dec. 15 bringing gusty winds as well as around 10 inches of snowfall. No major incidents or power outages were reported during that event.
