Biddeford opens warming center for those without power

BIDDEFORD — The City of Biddeford will open a warming center today for residents without power after Friday’s storm.

The warming center will open at noon at the Biddeford High School Steve White Gym, 20 Maplewood Ave., according to Danica Lamontagne, assistant to the city manager.

In Saco, residents are invited to go to the Saco Transportation Center at 138 Main St. during prolonged power outages to keep warm, charge electronic devices and use the restroom. The Saco Transportation Center is open from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.

According to information reported by Central Maine Power at 8:53 a.m., 1,688 of Biddeford’s 12,531 CMP customers were out of power. In Old Orchard Beach, 285 of 8,267 were out of power and in Saco,  2,306 of 11,231 were out of power.

CMP sent out 550 line crews and 230 tree crews across the company’s service territory on Friday so it could respond quickly when outages began to occur, said CMP President and CEO Joe Purington in a written statement. He said crews worked all day to clear downed lines and trees from roadways to keep local communities safe and assure emergency vehicles can reach their destinations.

Purington said the weather had been extremely windy with gusts of 65 miles per hour along the coast and Moosehead region, and gusts in the mid 50 miles per hour range in other areas of the state.

Publisher Liz Gotthelf can be reached at newsdesk@sacobaynews.com.