An Auburn Public Works employee picks up pieces of trees on Saturday morning that broke off in high winds on North River Road in Auburn. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

Power outages among Central Maine Power customers dropped to around 200 Monday afternoon after high winds had cut electricity to more than 70,000 Mainers this weekend, according to the company.

Winds up to 45 miles per hour knocked out more than 71,200 CMP customers’ power across the state Saturday morning, but utility crews had restored most of the outages by Sunday morning.

CMP spokesperson Jon Breed said the company had about 1,600 outages at 10:50 a.m. Monday. By mid-afternoon, the number had dropped to just over 200 outages scattered across eight counties.

Breed said many of the remaining outages were caused by branches and trees that were damaged on Saturday but fell later and knocked out power. He said most customers would have service restored by the end of Monday.

Crews began working to restore power Saturday as early as 6 a.m. and started preparing for the wind storm midweek, Breed said.

“CMP began tracking the possibility for strong winds on Thursday and placed line crews and tree care crews on double coverage overnight Friday,” Breed said in a statement.

Source: Central Maine Power

Breed said the possibility of a wind storm prompted CMP to hold back from sending crews to support Hurricane Milton’s recovery efforts in Florida.

Most power outages on Saturday were attributed to tree damage, Breed said. Most trees were still full of leaves, meaning large trees were more likely to be uprooted.

Breed urged customers who lost power to stay away from downed lines, turn off or unplug major appliances and avoid using ranges or outdoor stoves as heat sources. Customers can report outages using the CMP app or website.