Nor’easter Winds Plunge Maine Coast into Darkness

Gusty winds from the nor'easter knocked out power for over 5,000 Central Maine Power customers along the Maine coast while New Hampshire and northern Massachusetts dodged a blackout bullet.

According to Central Maine Power's outage map just over 2,300 customers in York and 3,083 customers in Eliot, Kittery and Shapleigh were without power on Tuesday morning. The utility also had more outages north of Portland.

"We have more than 800 lineworkers & tree workers repairing outages caused by persistent high wind gusts, primarily along the Maine coast. We expect winds to continue to impact the coast today, and we will be there," CMP said in a tweet.

National Weather Service forecaster Andy Pohl told Seacoast Current the highest winds were just off the coast with a gust of 67 at the Isle of Shoals and 75 mph at Appledore Island just south of Kittery. Right along the coast the strongest gust was 44 mph in Portsmouth.

A Wind Advisory is in effect until noon for coastal New Maine for potential wind gusts to 45 mph. A High Wind Warning is posted for coastal New Hampshire for gusts to 50 mph.

The storm is gradually shifting away from the southern New England coastline with periods of rain and wind tapering off by Wednesday evening.

Contact reporter Dan Alexander at Dan.Alexander@townsquaremedia.com or via Twitter @DanAlexanderNH