Utility crews worked Tuesday to restore power to hundreds of thousands of customers in Maine and some rivers continued to rise in New England following a powerful storm that hit the northeastern U.S., drenching communities and bringing windspeeds over 60 mph in some areas.
“It was pretty loud, the wind was pretty strong, branches are breaking, things are flapping outside,” said Drew Landry of Hallowell, Maine, who lost power and was looking at a street that was under water Tuesday. “All the basements are pretty much flooded.”
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Hallowell, just south of the state capital of Augusta, is along the Kennebec River, which was over flood stage and still rising.
Nathan Sennett, a cook at the Quarry Tap Room in town, was wading through hip-deep water to move furniture from a flooded patio and deal with a change in holiday-related business.
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“We were supposed to have a couple of parties today and tomorrow, and just kind of sporadically throughout the weekend,” he said. “But obviously, we've had to cancel those.”
In Maine, Central Maine Power reported that 227,805 homes had no power as of 8:30 p.m., more than 40% of their customers.
"We continue to make progress in our efforts to restore power to all customers affected by yesterday’s wind and rainstorm," Central Maine Power, the state's largest utility, posted online Tuesday night, saying crews will continue working around the clock. "So far today, we have restored power to more than 117,000 customers or about 29% of those affected. We have more than 2,000 people including 1,400 line and tree crews on the job now with more arriving tomorrow, working 24x7 until power is restored to all of our customers."
"We know it can seem frustrating and as if nothing is happening but, rest assured, we are on it – working to complete these initial steps of restoration as safely and quickly as possible."
At least two people in Maine were killed as a result of the storm. In Windham, police said part of a tree fell and killed a man who was removing debris from his roof. And in Fairfield, a man was fatally injured while removing a downed tree with a tractor. And in Mexico, two people are still missing after their car was swept away by flood waters.
Maine Gov. Janet Mills delayed the opening of state offices until midday Tuesday to allow time for power restoration and cleanup efforts from the storm, which took down many trees and closed roads. One office building in Augusta will remain closed to remove scaffolding damaged by the storm.
“We are expecting a multi-day recovery effort," she said.
In Portland, a 60-foot white pine tree came crashing down at the home of Ellen Briggs. Her neighbor, Nate Woodin, said he heard the collapse while wrapping Christmas gifts and it sounded like “a lightning crash.”
Briggs, who was not home at the time, was arranging for work crews to get the giant tree removed.
Pete Chagnon, 75, in Oxford, Maine, helped a couple of people remove a tree that was blocking a road, one of many that had fallen in his neighborhood.
“Since moving here (in 2015), I have seen some wicked storms but yesterday took the cake,” said Chagnon, who lost power, but had a generator.
Some rivers in the region crested. The Androscoggin River in Rumford, Maine, reached a maximum stage of 22 feet in a 24-hour period ending early Tuesday, the National Weather Service said. Flood stage is 15 feet. The river was expected to fall below flood stage Tuesday afternoon.
The Kennebec River at Augusta was expected to reach a crest of 25 feet Thursday evening, the weather service said. Flood stage is 12 feet.
Police in the town of Fairfield along the river issued a voluntary evacuation order for some areas.
Ski areas were also impacted by the storm. Sunday River, located in Newry, announced that it is closed Tuesday due storm damage.
"We are actively assessing roads, trails, and systems in the aftermath of heavy rain received in a short period of time today," Sunday River said in a Facebook post. "Ski operations will be reopened as quickly as possible and snowmaking will resume once necessary repairs are made."
Bretton Woods, Wildcat, Attitash and Loon Mountain in New Hampshire also announced they would be closed Tuesday to assess storm damage and get trails back into shape.
Some towns in Vermont, which had suffered major flooding from a storm in July, were seeing more flood damage. Some school districts remained closed in the region Tuesday.
Five months after flooding inundated Vermont’s capital city of Montpelier, water entered the basements of some downtown businesses as the city monitored the level of the Winooski River. Sandbags were back out on the streets, just in case they flooded.
“I just don't want to go through what we went through again,” said Karen Williams, owner of Woodbury Mountain Toys, which flooded in July. She relocated across the street and reopened in October. “People are just opening up again.”
Williams' new location is about a foot higher. This time, she just got a couple of inches of water in her basement, and a pump worked to get it out.
Three people were rescued from a home in Jamaica and another in Waterbury when that person’s vehicle was swept away by floodwaters, said Vermont Public Safety Commissioner Jennifer Morrison at a press conference with the governor. Several shelters were set up.
Between 30 to 50 homes were evacuated in the village of Moretown on Monday as the Mad River flooded due to the heavy rainfall.
A number of roads were also closed around the state due to flooding, including in Londonderry and Ludlow, the southern Vermont communities that were hit hard by flooding in July.
“Although there will be damage to infrastructure, homes and businesses, we do not expect this to be the same scale as July,” Vermont Gov. Phil Scott said. “That being said, some of the places that were impacted in July are currently experiencing flooding once again. So for them, this is July and it’s a real gut punch.”
Montpelier officials said in an update Monday night that the Winooski River had started to recede, and the damage sustained by businesses was minimal. The city will continue to monitor the situ ation, but no additional rain was expected that would further exacerbate the flooding.
Waterbury did experience some road flooding on Monday night, according to WPTZ, but the water is expected to recede Tuesday.
