I went days with no power thanks to a powerful Sou'easter that knocked out more power than the ice storm of 1998.

According to NewsCenter Maine, the storm hit Sunday, October 29, at night. Just before Halloween.

Winds howled up to 69 miles per hour in Maine, and at the height of the storm, cut power to nearly half a million people! That was more power outages than any other storm in Maine history, and it holds to this day.

Facebook/BenChipman
Facebook/BenChipman
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Back then, our Governor was Paul LePage, and he declared a state of emergency that lasted a week as crews worked around the clock to clear hundreds of downed trees.

I remember how warm it was. It was so warm that keeping food cold was a definite problem. There was a lot of food thrown out that week.

Did an October storm really knock out more power than the massive ice storm of '98?

Maine DOT via Facebook
Maine DOT via Facebook
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Yup. There was more damage with the ice storm. Mainers were left without power for weeks on end, and it was freezing. The ice storm was in January of 1998; this Sou'easter was in late October and was remarkably warm.

For the ice storm, you had to deal with no power and freezing temperatures. Not a great combination. But as far as power impact, the storm from 2017 was the worst.

When the ice storm hit, it knocked out power to a total of 340,000 CMP customers. At the height of the Sou'easter, CMP had nearly 400,000 customers without power, with another 90,000 Emera Maine customers in the dark.

Jones Landing - Peaks Got Pounded
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I'll never forget both storms. The ice storm of '98 left me with no cable for a couple of days, and that's it. I never lost power living on Munjoy Hill in Portland.

But that Sou'easter in 2017 left me without power for days. I remember just trying to save the food! Trick-or-treating that year was a trip!

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