Emergency crews work to safely remove a downed tree on State Route 123 just south of the Harpswell town line on Monday, Dec. 18. A regional storm with heavy rain and winds knocked out power to most of the town and surrounding communities. (Robin Casey photo)

Nearly every home and business in Harpswell was without power late Monday afternoon as a severe regional storm brought two inches of rain and whipping winds of up to 65 miles per hour to the community. Town officials said it could take days for power to be fully restored.

As of 4:30 p.m., all but 100 of the town’s roughly 4,750 Central Maine Power customers were without power, according to CMP’s online outage list. The severity and expected duration of the outages prompted town officials to post an urgent warning to Harpswell’s Facebook page.

“Please plan for the possibility of being without power for multiple days,” the Facebook post says. “Central Maine Power will need days to restore power to all Maine residents.  The Town Office will be open from 8:30 a.m.- 4:30 p.m. Tuesday as a (warming) center and charging station.  Look out for one another and check on your neighbors.”

Harpswell officials also reminded residents not to use generators inside homes or garages, or within 10 feet of a home’s exterior.

The town’s critical infrastructure was battered throughout the day, as emergency crews scrambled to keep roads safe and passable. Harpswell Neck was hit especially hard, town Fire Administrator Mike Drake said.

“At one point, (the area near 155) Harpswell Neck Road … was completely impassable due to multiple trees and power lines down,” Drake said via email. “Just as firefighters were attempting to exit the area for their safety, CMP arrived with four crews and were able to make the downed lines ‘safe’ and assist the firefighters with cutting trees to get one lane open.”

Harpswell’s three volunteer fire departments responded to 11 incidents between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m., Drake said. One was a medical call on Orr’s Island, handled by Orr’s & Bailey Islands Fire Department. Cundy’s Harbor Volunteer Fire Department responded to three storm-related incidents, and Harpswell Neck Fire and Rescue handled seven storm-related calls.

During the height of the storm, the Cumberland County Communications Center lost all radio communications with the three fire departments, Drake said. Emergency calls were temporarily handled using phones and portable radios until regular communications were restored, he said.

Surrounding communities also were severely impacted by the storm. As of 4:30 p.m., 100% of homes and businesses in Phippsburg, Georgetown, Bowdoin and Bowdoinham were without power. In Brunswick, 9,050 of 11,700 CMP customers were experiencing outages. About 60 percent of CMP customers in Topsham and Bath were without power.

Monday’s storm caused flooding and power outages throughout New England, New York and New Jersey. But as of 4:30 p.m., Maine was experiencing the most severe  outages by far, according to PowerOutage.us. It reported over 400,000 power customers in Maine were experiencing outages out of 852,000 total – about 47 percent.

In Harpswell, the rain was expected to taper off by 7 p.m. Monday, and the high winds were expected to die down by 4 a.m. Tuesday.

Have a comment or news tip? Email J. Craig Anderson at craig@harpswellanchor.org.