Strong winds blow roof off home

LEWISTON — Well, here’s something new: Instead of snow or bitter cold wreaking havoc across the area, it was gusting winds.

It started in the early evening Tuesday and by 10 p.m., roughly 8,000 homes and businesses were without power as lines came crashing down. The bulk of those were in the Lewiston-Auburn area, where 6,000 were in the dark.

In the Twin Cities, gusts of 49 mph were measured Tuesday night, according to the National Weather Service in Gray. In Oxford County, winds topped out at 43 mph, although fewer than 1,000 Central Maine Power customers had lost electrical service.

Lewiston and Auburn were hit by scattered outages, but there were few significant problems, aside from trash cans and assorted debris blowing across roads, police said. Reports that a roof had blown off in Auburn were not immediately confirmed.

Meteorologists blamed the wind on a cold front moving through the area and said gusts would continue into Wednesday, when a wind advisory is expected to stay in effect most of the day.

Today is expected to be cold — temperatures forecast to be in the 20s with the windchill making it feel even colder. Still, just two days before the official start of spring, it’s better than snow in the forecast.