A tree felled in Sydney on Saturday. High winds cut power to 70,000 Central Maine Power customers. Central Maine Power contributed photo

More than 71,200 Central Maine Power customers were without power Saturday morning as high winds blew across Maine.

Cumberland County had the most outages as of 10:15 a.m. Saturday, at 9,972, according to CMP’s online outage tracker. Kennebec and Franklin counties had more than 8,000 customers without power and Oxford reported more than 7,500 outages.

The National Weather Service has issued wind advisories for parts of western and central Maine and hazardous weather forecasts for the rest of the state. Winds could reach 30 to 45 miles per hour, the strongest of which will be felt from the foothills to the Canadian border.

Several other counties experienced outages to thousands of customers, including Androscoggin, Hancock, Lincoln, Penobscot, Piscataquis, Sagadahoc, Somerset, Waldo and York.

CMP spokesman Jon Breed said crews were working to restore power Saturday morning.

“CMP began monitoring the possibility of strong winds on Thursday and placed line crews and tree maintenance crews under double cover overnight Friday,” Breed said in a statement. “Strong, gusty winds are damaging trees in our service area today, and crews are already on the ground cleaning up the damage and restoring power. »

“We urge caution if traveling outdoors today as winds will remain strong throughout the day and further tree damage is possible,” Breed said.

This story will be updated.

Copy story link