Thunderstorm packing high winds knocks out power on Peaks Island

Ray Routhier, Portland Press Herald, Maine
·2 min read

Aug. 27—A thunderstorm ripped through Peaks Island late Friday afternoon causing damage to trees and buildings and leaving much of the island without power.

Winds of up to 57 miles per hour were reported on the island, which is part of Portland, around 4:45 p.m., said Jon Palmer, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Gray. Central Maine Power was reporting around 7 p.m.. that more than 1,300 homes and businesses were without power on Peaks, Great Diamond and Little Diamond islands.

Peaks seemed to be one of the few areas in Greater Portland affected by outages after the storms. CMP reported a total of 1,691 customers without power in Cumberland County at 7:45 p.m., with more than 1,300 of them on Peaks and the Diamond islands. Of all CMP's 665,000 customers only 3,641 were without power immediately after the storms.

@PressHerald damage on peaks island from storms pic.twitter.com/NEn4z8pd25

— Doug Lavanture (@DougLavanture) August 26, 2022

Shay Stewart-Bouley, a resident of Island Avenue on Peaks, said she heard a loud "crack" during the rainstorm Friday afternoon, then saw that the large metal and fabric awning from the nearby Island Lobster Company had blown into the road, along with tree limbs and other debris. During the next couple of hours, residents and city workers had cleared most of that storm debris from the roads, she said.

Photos of storm damage in Portland included a tree down on the Eastern Promenade, flooding on Forest Avenue and a tree that crashed through fence on Woodford Street.

Palmer, at the weather service, said thunderstorm warnings for much of southern New Hampshire as well as York, Cumberland and southern Oxford counties in Maine had been issued between 2 and 4 p.m. Friday. He said there were many reports of trees down in New Hampshire as well as reports of 2-inch hail in Carroll County, near the Maine border. He said there were reports of trees down in Maine, but not as many.

Palmer said early Friday evening it seemed that thunderstorms were still a threat in Maine but were "going to quiet down" later in the evening.