A small cabin floated into a bay, a large airplane was shoved on the tarmac, and coastal areas and river cities were knee deep in water as Maine was hit by the second storm in less than a month that devastated not with snow or ice, but with high winds and flooding.
The storm rolled into Maine Tuesday night as an easygoing snowstorm that dumped over a foot of fluffy snow in parts of northern and western Maine and inches elsewhere in the state.
But as the temperature warmed through the night, the snow turned to heavy rain accompanied by winds strong enough to blow a 737 into a jet bridge at the Portland International Jetport, and gusts of up to 75 mph, according to the National Weather Service.
Low-lying coastal areas in Maine, along with much of the East Coast of the U.S., were flooded by a storm surge. In Portland, a surge measured by the National Weather Service at three feet high combined with a 10-foot high tide in Casco Bay to flood parts of the downtown. Rivers across the state swelled with rain and snow melt, spilling their banks in Bangor and elsewhere.
Power outages were not as widespread as after the Dec. 18 storm that left more than 420,000 without electricity statewide, many of those for days on end.
As of 4 p.m. Wednesday, Central Maine Power reported that slightly more than 1 percent of its 674,184 customers were without power. In a news release, CMP anticipated being able to restore power to almost all customers by the end of Wednesday or Thursday.
A little more than 8 percent of Versant Power’s 166,653 customers were without electricity at 4 p.m. Wednesday. The relatively low number came despite lingering damage from the December storm.
Photos and videos posted to social media gave glimpses of the wreckage from around the state.
In Owls Head a small cabin was carried on strong waves into Owls Head Bay and onto the shore of a nearby island. The Pemaquid Point Lighthouse in Bristol was gutted.
Route 1 in Machias was overtopped by flood waters, as was the Deer Isle causeway.
As storm surges met the high tide before 10 a.m., the Kennebunk Fire Department posted a dramatic video of water pouring across Middle Beach and onto a road.
One couple who refused to give their name in downtown Kennebunk in the afternoon said they have a sister and brother in law with a house by the beach. They hoped to walk there, but they couldn’t reach it because of the floodwaters blocking each route.
Don Harty and his wife, who moved to Kennebunk from New Hampshire three years ago, had hoped to walk their dogs along the beach on Ocean Avenue Wednesday, but deep, standing pools of floodwater cut them off at every street they tried.
“This is probably the worst we’ve ever seen it,” Harty said.
The National Weather Service on Wednesday gave a 70-80 percent likelihood of “another impactful storm” on Saturday.
BDN writer Zara Norman contributed reporting to this story.
