PORTLAND, Maine — Residents of Peaks Island were still cleaning up Monday afternoon after severe thunderstorms blew down trees, power lines, and pieces of buildings just off the coast of Portland.
The National Weather Service in Gray measured winds reaching 57 mph on Peaks, the most populous island off the coast of Maine.
Nancy Klosteridis has co-owned the Greeks of Peaks food truck for five years. She was on the mainland during the storm, but had three people working the truck as the storm approached the island.
She was fielding calls and texts while crew chose to evacuate the truck. That was minutes, Klosteridis said, before a massive, over 100-year-old tree uprooted and crashed through the roof — twisting steel like it was a toy car.
“I’ve never experienced anything like it,” Klosteridis said. “There aren’t really words. We’re just so glad nobody was hurt; that was the big thing. Our employees made it out of there with minutes to spare.”
Around the corner from the food truck, Toby McAllister had just gotten off the noon ferry and walked to the Lions Club to find his car.
The musician had been playing a wedding rehearsal in a covered pavilion overlooking the ocean when the storm hit. He put down his guitar and started filming with his phone as a large tree snapped in half, some 30 feet from the party.
“I’d never seen anything like it in the state of Maine, that’s for sure,” the well-traveled musician recalled. “We’re really lucky no one was out in this area because, when you’re taking the video, it snapped off like a toothpick — like nothing.”
Portland emergency services reported no injuries resulting from the storm, but sizable tree limbs, backyard string lights, and cable lines littered sidewalks and front yards sporadically along the island’s west side.
That’s where we found John Kamp, a contractor born and raised on the island. He and his excavator had become quite popular around town since the storm.
“Ever since Friday afternoon when the storm hit, we’ve been going strong ever since,” he said.
Had he managed any sleep since Friday?
“Not much!” he laughed.
It serves as just one of his many commitments to neighbors talked about Monday afternoon through the streets of Peaks Island.