Thousands of Maine citizens were left without power after a storm passed through the state on May 9, according to multiple reports.
Fox News reported that the winds left almost 11,000 people across several counties without power that night, and Press Herald reported that out of those counties, Piscataquis county and Sagadahoc county had been hit the most with the highest numbers of people reporting to have been left with no power.
Emera Maine, an electric services company, reported more than 730 people had no power, and the majority of them were in the Caribou region. Winds during the storm reached as high as 50 mph.
“This is the kind of day when outage numbers will fluctuate. The wind is responsible, but it is not so persistently gutsy that we can’t make the repairs outages occur today,” said Catherine Hartnett, the Central Maine Power spokeswoman.
Repairs are being done by the utility crews as fast as possible.
Hartnett said that the forecasts predicted that the winds would die down that night, according to Press Herald.
The storm originated from the polar vortex, which sent a blast of cold wind down from the north, affecting the central plains, the midwest, Mid-Atlantic, and the Northeast, according to Fox News.
The National Weather Service said the chilly weather was expected to last until Sunday, with freeze warnings in effect. However, according to Rick Reichmuth, the chief meteorologist, temperatures were estimated to go up.
“It’s going to get better. In fact, temps [on Sunday] are going to be back up into the 60s for a lot of people, so that snow that we had yesterday will be gone, but we do have one more chilly morning to get through with this,” said Reichmuth.
Other areas were also hit by the polar vortex, including New York and New England, and Fox News reported that these areas saw up to 10 inches of snow. Other high-elevated areas such as Sugar Hill and New Hampshire had around 10.5 inches. Carrabassett Valley, Maine, saw around 9 inches of snow.
According to the National Weather Service, the polar vortex is an area that surrounds the earth’s two poles and consists of low pressure and cold air. The polar vortex weakens during the summer and strengthens during the winter. During certain times in winter, it will expand and send cold air southward, creating colder temperatures.
