Apr. 5—Hundreds of extra line and tree crews are expected to arrive in Maine on Friday to help restore power to more than 230,000 homes and businesses still in the dark following a powerful spring nor’easter.

The storm, which started Wednesday evening and wrapped up Friday morning, dumped more than a foot of snow in some areas of southern Maine. The heavy, wet snow snapped tree limbs and power lines, knocking out electricity to nearly 350,000 customers statewide at the peak of the storm Thursday.

“Overnight, our crews continued their work, and we have now restored power to more than 100,000 customers. With improving weather conditions today, more and more areas are being assessed for significant damage, cleared of trees and repairs to poles and wires are being made,” Central Maine Power said in a statement Friday morning.

CMP says crews will work around the clock until power has been restored to all customers.

Thursday’s storm came less than two weeks after a powerful snow and ice storm knocked out power to 200,000 CMP customers, some of whom waited days for power to be restored.

“The damage from these fallen trees is significant, and our arborists have observed that this is some of the worst snow loading on trees they have seen in more than a decade,” Jon Breed, spokesperson for CMP, said Thursday afternoon.

CMP restored power to tens of thousands of customers late Thursday. About 236,000 CMP customers were still in the dark around noon on Friday. Cumberland reported about 67,000 without power, York County had around 80,000, while Androscoggin had more than 25,000.

“Given the scale of damage we are seeing, at this time we do anticipate this to be a multiple-day restoration effort, lasting into early next week for some customers in hardest-hit areas,” CMP said in a statement Thursday afternoon.

Source: Central Maine Power

Versant Power reported nearly 16,000 customers were without power as of 2 p.m. Thursday, the highest number it reported all day. That number dropped below 4,700 by 9:30 p.m. but jumped back up to 5,680 Friday morning. Just over 4,000 were still in the dark around noon Friday.

“We expect a multiday restoration and for work to continue through the weekend at this time,” Versant said in a message to customers. “Our focus today will be addressing public safety concerns, like downed lines, and assessing damage to identify what repairs need to be made to the system.”

Anna Henderson, general manager of the Kennebunk Light and Power District, said roughly 1,000 of its 7,000 customers lost power at the storm’s peak. By 7 p.m. Thursday, thanks in part to additional line crews from Massachusetts, half had their lights on again. Henderson said restoration would likely continue into Saturday.

Restoration of Spectrum service is also ongoing. Lara Prichard, a spokesperson for Charter Communications, Spectrum’s parent company, said most service interruptions in Maine are tied to commercial power outages.

SCHOOLS CLOSED, WARMING CENTERS OPEN

Gov. Janet Mills delayed the opening of state offices until 11 a.m. Friday.

Some schools — including Biddeford, Westbrook and Brunswick — closed again Friday.

For the fifth time in the Sea Dogs’ 31-year history, the opening day game has been postponed because of snow.

The Sea Dogs announced that the games scheduled for Friday and Saturday had to be postponed because of poor field conditions. No makeup dates have been announced. The team will continue to evaluate field conditions and will make a decision about Sunday’s 1 p.m. game later this weekend.

Fans with tickets to the April 5 and 6 games can exchange their tickets for any other 2024 home game.

South Portland, Scarborough, Windham, Brunswick, Old Orchard Beach and other towns planned to open warming centers Friday where residents could charge their phones and possibly take showers.

@portlandpressheraldCentral Maine Power Co. says it expects power outages to stretch into early next week “for some customers in hardest-hit areas.” About 48% of CMP customers — 322,000 — were in the dark around 2 p.m. Read more at pressherald.com♬ original sound — Portland Press Herald

Warming shelters are also open at the Scarborough Public Safety Building, Windham High School, Buxton Town Hall, Kittery Community Center, North Lebanon Baptist Church in Lebanon, York Village Fire Station, West Kennebunk Fire Station, Bath YMCA and MSAD 75 Middle School in Topsham.

This story will be updated.