Nearly 6,000 households lost power Tuesday morning across Kennebec County as the result of a suspected lightning strike, officials confirmed.
The outage began shortly before 9 a.m. Data from Central Maine Power Co. showed that about 2,600 households in Waterville, around 2,000 in Winslow and roughly 900 in Vassalboro were without power at some point Tuesday morning.
CMP crews suspect a lightning strike at a transmission station near Vassalboro Monday night resulted in a delayed outage, according to company spokesperson Jonathan Breed.
A smattering of thunderstorms rolled through central Maine overnight Monday, bringing wind gusts up to 15 mph, spurts of heavy rain and occasional thunder and lightning.
“It appears a section of the transmission system sustained some damage — crews suspect lightning — from one of the storms last night that didn’t result in an actual outage until this morning,” Breed wrote in an email Tuesday.
Power was restored to households in Waterville in less than 15 minutes “using remote switching and automation,” Breed said, while electricity returned to the roughly 3,000 households elsewhere in about 45 minutes.
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