Easter Windstorm Crashes Trees, Takes Out Power
The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by Paradis Ace Hardware.
MOUNT DESERT ISLAND—Many island residents lost power on Easter Sunday afternoon thanks to powerful wind gusts. Most of the power outages peaked shortly after 3:30 p.m.
According to the Bangor Daily News, “More than 10,000 customers lost power on the afternoon of Easter Sunday as gusty winds blew across Maine, with most of them in Penobscot, Aroostook, Hancock, Washington, and Piscataquis counties.”
Penobscot County took the brunt of the damage, but trees fell across Mount Desert Island, hitting power lines requiring responses from police, fire, and public works crews in multiple towns. Dispatchers coordinated the responses and also alerted Versant of the issues.
A massive piece of a tree fell between the Jesup Memorial Library and the YWCA MDI, both located on Mount Desert Street in Bar Harbor.
Hancock County had just over 2,050 outages. The winds and dry weather created a high fire risk as well.
The Hancock County Emergency Management agency shared an alert from the National Weather System for a “red flag warning.”
“A Red Flag Warning means that critical fire weather conditions are either occurring now...or will shortly. A combination of strong winds ... low relative humidity ... and warm temperatures will create dangerous fire weather conditions,” it wrote.
At the Bar Harbor, Hancock County-Bar Harbor Airport wind gusts were recorded at 36 m.p.h. in the mid afternoon.
As of press time, there was just 21 Versant customers in Hancock County that still do not have power. Three of those are reported to be in Southwest Harbor.
Follow us on Facebook. And as a reminder, you can easily view all our past stories and press releases here.
If you’d like to donate to help support us, you can, but no pressure! Just click here (about how you can give) or here (a direct link), which is the same as the button below.
If you’d like to sponsor the Bar Harbor Story, you can! Learn more here.