In the aftermath of the brief storm on Tuesday night, several downed trees damaged wires that fed the Woodlawn Terrace housing facility in Brunswick. The terrace, which provides senior housing, was running on a generator during the power outage. The Brunswick-Topsham Housing Authority, which owns the building, said everyone was unharmed after the storm. Courtesy of Brunswick-Topsham Housing Authority
A fast-moving Tuesday night storm left hundreds without power for hours, shutting down businesses and events in its wake.
Hundreds of Central Maine Power customers were still without power in Brunswick on Wednesday morning, but power had been restored to all but a few customers as as of early afternoon. The storm downed trees took down wires, closing several businesses near downtown Brunswick as a result.
“It was a fast mover,” Fire Chief Ken Brillant said of the storm.
Brillant said that primary lines came down in two locations on River Road and in one spot on Stone Street. Though Stone Street is not a big road with many houses, he said, the lines located on the road feed power to Woodlawn Terrace, a senior housing facility owned by the Brunswick-Topsham Housing Authority.
John Hodge of the Brunswick-Topsham housing authority told The Times Record that Woodlawn Terrace, which has 41 units, is currently running on a generator as CMP works to restore power to the road. Hodge reported that all the residents are okay.
Chief Brillant also reported an incident of carbon monoxide build up in a Brunswick home, where a power outage kicked on the resident’s automatic generator. No one was hurt in the incident, he said.
Brillant said that the air intake duct for the generator began sucking carbon monoxide into the home, causing carbon monoxide detectors to go off. He added that the generator was more than a safe distance from the home, which is a minimum of 5 feet, and that yesterday’s conditions of an outage and heavy, humid air created a situation where the toxic gas could enter the home.
A ‘mind-boggling and devastating’ series of outages
Several businesses lost power in yesterday’s storm, prompting significant financial loss for some and inconveniencing customers.
The Federal Hotel on Water Street lost power close to 7 p.m. and remained without electricity for six hours, according to the hotel’s managing partner Gerard Kiladjian. While he said there was no loss of produce in the hotel’s restaurant, the business lost customers and, subsequently, the prepared food for the day.
“When you lose power in the summer, its much more difficult,” Kiladjian said, explaining that rooms can heat up without AC running through the hotel. Thankfully, he said, no guests ended up leaving. He also acknowledged that power outages have been more frequent this year compared to other years of working in Brunswick.
Maine State Music Theatre (MSMT), which hosts performances at Pickard Theater on Bowdoin College’s campus, cancelled its nearly sold-out evening performance of “Funny Girl” after postponing the show until 8:30 p.m. in hopes that power would be restored in time.
MSMT reported that a crowd of attendees and employees stood outside the theater amid the outage.
The outage was the second disruption so far in the performance season, MSMT said in a press release. June 18 performances of “South Pacific” was cancelled after Bowdoin College experienced an outage due to a transformer issue.
A spokesperson from Bowdoin College said that the June 18 transformer issue was a result of a fuse exacerbated by warm weather.
“The sheer and unbelievable coincidence of the power going out at the theatre for the same Tuesday night subscription audience when they were to see “South Pacific,” and then three weeks later attend “Funny Girl,” is mind-boggling and devastating to all of us here at Maine State Music Theatre,” said Curt Dale Clark, MSMT’s artistic director. “Our inability to get these patrons in to see the show due to limited tickets available is heartbreaking — as the schedule is unfortunately inflexible and we cannot extend with “White Christmas“ set to open on July 17.”
Clark estimated that the theater will lose about $75,000 on each of the three shows that have been cancelled because of power outages, the one on Tuesday and two on June 18. He said the total, about $225,000, is about 5%-6% of the organization’s total $8 million annual budget.
Of the 400 or more subscribers affected by Tuesday’s outage, about 170 will be able to get tickets to another showing of “Funny Girl” before it closes. About 145 other people who were in the audience Tuesday were single-ticket buyers and will be offered refunds.
“These were the exact same people (at Tuesday’s show) who lost ‘South Pacific.’ I walked around the theater and saw looks of abject disappointment in people’s faces,” said Clark. “I take my responsibility to subscribers so seriously. They are a big reason why we’ve survived all these years. I owe them these shows.”
Clark said some subscribers who could not be moved to another performance of a cancelled show have offered to donate the refund money to MSMT.
Clark added that the outages experienced this season were more than he’s encountered in his 18-year career at MSMT and that they have financially impacted the theatre.
MSMT said that those who were planning to see this week’s cancelled show will be contacted by the box office.
Paul Bagnall of The Times Record and Ray Routhier of the Press Herald contributed to this story.
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