Sandy’s Not Done; Flood Watch Issued for Much of Maine

[Updated: 10:00 a.m.] A weakened Hurricane Sandy will continue to bring showers and isolated thunder storms to eastern and Northern Maine on Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service in Gray, which is predicting the wet weather will last throughout much of the week.

While the brunt of the storm spared Maine, the National Weather Service on Wednesday issued a flood watch for much of eastern Maine, including the areas around Bangor, Orono and Old Town. The watch is in effect until 2 p.m.

Bangor Hydro Electric Company on Wednesday morning reported that crews had resolved all outages in its coverage area, with most of those along the coast in Hancock and Washington County. That's down from about 5,500 outages earlier on Tuesday.

Crews from southern Maine had a tougher time with the storm. As of 10 p.m., Central Maine Power officials had reported about 16,000 outages, mostly in York and Cumberland counties. That's down from 66,000 earlier on Tuesday.

While Maine largely escaped Sandy's wrath, points south were not so lucky.

Thirty-three people are confirmed dead in the U.S., bringing storm-related casualties to more than 100 since Sandy first hit the Caribbean. New York and New Jersey were among the hardest hit, with the storm trigger flooding, fires and widespread power outages. It is estimated that more than 7.5 million customers in 15 states are without power.