High winds caused havoc in Buxton, Gorham and Westbrook on Friday.
In Westbrook, a tree limb downed power lines, shutting down New Gorham Road to traffic. On Lincoln Street, winds uprooted an evergreen tree that fell on the home of Wayne and Gail Price at 2:50 p.m. “It shook the house,” Wayne Price said.
The couple was in their living room when Wayne Price noticed the tree swaying before it landed on their roof. ‘It was scary. I was sitting in the window,” Gail Price said.
The downed tree also hit wires to the house. Gail Price dialed 911 and public safety officials advised the couple and their children to stay inside. “They said CMP was pretty busy,” she said.
The couple didn’t know how much damage might have been done to their house.
At Mission Possible on Main Street in Westbrook, siding ripped loose from the building, but four teens swung into action. Branden Collins, Seth Averill, Kacey Stanton and Kyle Stanton held the flapping siding in place until help arrived with carpentry tools.
Buxton suffered damage all around the town. The traffic light at the intersection of routes 22 and 202 wasn’t working during the evening commute because of a downed power line on Route 202 west of the intersection. “We had a number of trees on wires,” a public safety dispatcher said.
In Gorham, wind flattened three utility poles, closing down Sebago Lake Road to traffic on Friday afternoon. Gorham Fire Chief Robert Lefebvre said nothing hit the poles to bring them down. “It was sheer wind force that took the poles down,” Lefebvre said.
Lefebvre also said a tree fell on a home on Tow Path Road but no one was injured.
The U.S. Weather Bureau in Gray reported winds gusting to 70 mph in Cape Elizabeth at 4:19 p.m.; 60 mph in Westbrook at 1:03 p.m.; and 52 mph at the Jetport in Portland at 4:15 p.m.
The agency didn’t have a wind velocity for Gorham. But Larry Irish of Gorham Public Works Department knew it was hard. “The wind blew,” said Irish who was on Sebago Lake Road where the wind snapped the poles.
Cutline (Mission Possible 1) 
Cutline (tree on house 1)
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