Water rushes under the Frank J. Wood Bridge linking Brunswick and Topsham on Wednesday, Dec. 20, two days after a devastating windstorm swept across Maine. Glenn Michaels photo
Thousands of people across the Midcoast, including entire communities, were still without power and the heavily traveled Frank J. Wood Bridge linking Brunswick and Topsham remained closed Wednesday afternoon due to Monday’s historic storm.
The storm, which drenched the region and whipped up 60-plus mph winds, killed two Mainers who were hit by falling tree limbs and knocked out power to more than 400,000 across the state.
As of early Wednesday afternoon, all 2,110 Central Maine Power customers in Phippsburg remained in the dark. All of Georgetown’s 1,250 CMP customers were without power Wednesday afternoon, but power had been restored to about half those people by 5:30 p.m.
CMP said Wednesday morning it had restored power to 201,000 customers across the state. That number was expected to tick up significantly later in the day.
“Conditions remain tough in some areas, with flooding and closed roads creating additional hazards and obstacles,” the utility said in a statement. “Our entire team is focused on this restoration effort — the largest in our company’s history. Crews from as far away as Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia and Canada are here helping us.”
The fire departments in Phippsburg and Georgetown, operating on generators, were opened Wednesday for people to stay warm and charge electronic devices.
“People are banding together,” Georgetown Town Administrator Tyler Washburn said.
CMP estimated power should be back online for most people in the Midcoast by 10 p.m. Wednesday.
“We’re very thankful for the hard work of the line crews,” Washburn said.
Downed trees and power lines and flooding closed scores of roadways across the region. Waters in the Androscoggin River swelled to about 15 feet above usual levels in some areas, forcing state officials to close the Frank J. Wood Bridge Tuesday morning. The bridge will remain closed until at least Thursday, according to Paul Merrill, spokesperson for the Maine Department of Transportation.
Several roads in Bath were closed due to downed power lines like these from Monday’s storm. Courtesy of Bath Police Department
Crews halted construction on the bridge replacement project; Merrill said the only damage was to part of the existing bridge’s sidewalk.
“Everything else — including the construction site — held up well,” Merrill said in an email. “The water never reached the structural steel on the old bridge. … I’ve been here almost five years, and this is the first time I can recall traffic being restricted on this bridge for this reason.”
By Wednesday evening, about 1,250 of Bath’s 5,000 customers were without power, an improvement from the 50% outages earlier in the day. Just 700 of Brunswick’s 12,000 customers didn’t have power Wednesday evening. In Bath, the First Baptist Church and the Bath Area Family YMCA were open to the public Wednesday for people to stay warm and charge their devices, while the Brunswick Recreation Center was also opened for those without power.
“Everyone stayed safe and worked together to get through this,” said Bath police Chief Andrew Booth.
Several schools, including Wiscasset Middle High School and the Dike Newell School in Bath, were closed due to a lack of power. The schools were expected to reopen Thursday.
No injuries from the storm were reported in the region; Booth said one issue was drivers trying to go through barricades set up on closed roads.
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