A storm packing high winds and heavy rains surged through Maine on Thursday flooding streets and basements, knocking out power to hundreds of homes, and even forcing a Maine Red Claws basketball game to be postponed.
The downpours dropped 1.5 inches of rain across most of the state. The National Weather Service Office in Gray issued a flood warning that remained in effect late Thursday night.
“It was a weather system that was loaded with moisture,” meteorologist Chris Legro said. Temperatures soared to 50 degrees in Portland and the rain combined with significant snowmelt. “We’ve seen a lot of localized street flooding caused by poor drainage.”
Traffic was detoured for about an hour Thursday evening around a flooded section of Stevens Avenue in Portland. Two vehicles were towed after they stalled in deep water, Sgt. Joe Ezepek said. Stevens Avenue reopened around 6:30 p.m.
West Commercial Street in Portland also flooded, but was not closed. Motorists were able to navigate around standing pools of water, Ezepek said.
The basketball game between the Maine Red Claws and Grand Rapids Drive was postponed after water began leaking onto the court prior to tipoff from the roof of the Portland Expo building. The NBAG League said the game will be rescheduled at a later date. Tickets will be honored on the makeup date.
News Center Maine tweeted that drivers should avoid using Route 232 in Woodstock because three cars were stuck in four feet of water.
WGME-TV, whose offices are located at Portland’s Northport plaza, tweeted that it had to scramble to create an emergency set for its evening broadcast after its studio flooded.
Nutter Road in South Portland was also closed because of street flooding.
Fire departments across the region, including Brunswick, responded to numerous reports of flooded basements.
As of 8:30, nearly 1,000 Central Maine Power Co. customers had lost power, with most of the outages concentrated in Knox and Waldo counties. More than 7,300 customers in Emera Maine’s service, which includes northern and Downeast Maine were without power as of 8:50 p.m.
Dennis Hoey can be contacted at 791-6365 or at:
dhoey@pressherald.com
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