Thousands still without power after US storm

Portland, Maine.- Crews were trying to restore power in Maine and New Hampshire on Saturday, where more than 100,000 homes and businesses were left in the dark after a storm packed with wind and snow.

Despite the efforts of 1,125 electrician crews and 400 logging crews, Maine's power company warned that some locations may not have power until Monday or Tuesday. Most of the outages, more than 150,000 Saturday morning, were in southern Maine, while more than 100,000 homes and businesses were without power in New Hampshire.

Central Maine Power has received more than 5,000 damage reports and more than 300 power poles down, company spokesman Jonathan Breed said.

It's been a rough winter and spring in Maine, the most forested state in the country. A December storm left about 450,000 homes and businesses without power, and last month's blizzard left about 200,000 without power. More than 300,000 homes and businesses were left without power in the most recent storm between Wednesday night and Thursday morning.

Such storms have become more frequent and intense over the past decade, Breit noted.

“These stronger, more frequent storms are happening everywhere. We attribute it to climate change,” Breed said Saturday. “That certainly explains the trend.”

The storm dumped heavy rain and winds across much of the North American Northeast – including gusts of up to 60 mph (97 km/h) in parts of New England – creating tornadoes and flooding further west.

More than a foot of snow fell in some places in New England. In total, about 700,000 people were without power at one point following New England's largest April storm since 2020.