MIDCOAST - Strong winds caused power outages in pockets around the state Friday morning and early afternoon.

According to Central Maine Power spokeswoman Gail Rice, 5,500 customers in the utility’s service area of Central and Southern Maine were without service at the peak period of interruption around midday. At various times, over 4,000 customers lost power in Knox and Waldo Counties.

Parts of Lincolnville, Islesboro, Northport and Searsmont lost power as a result of a downed tree in Lincolnville that left 2,600 customers without electricity for just under an hour. The outage was reported at 9:19 a.m. and service was restored at 10:30, Rice said.

Downtown Belfast went dark for an hour and 15 minutes later in the morning in an outage caused by a falling tree that affected 400 customers, Rice said.

Despite the loss of electricty, many businesses remained open. The kitchen staff in Chase’s Daily restaurant worked by the light of headlamps while diners made use of natural light from the restaurant’s large front windows. Other shops displayed “OPEN” signs, while silhouettes moved in the dark inside.

A police officer directed vehicles at the central intersection until power was restored to the traffic lights.

Some additional outages were reported outside of the downtown, and the downtown lost power a second time for around 15 minutes just before 3 p.m.

Knox County was spared until mid-afternoon when Rice said roughly 1,400 customers in the area of St. George, Tenants Harbor, South Thomaston and Warren lost power at 2:30 p.m.. Most saw their power restored by 3:45, Rice said.

Speaking around noon, Rice anticipated the incidents tapering off as the wind died down later in the day.

“It will probably be a busy afternoon and evening for us, but we should be able catch up with it when the wind stops,” she said.

By 4:15 p.m. some customers in Warren were still without power but Rice reported that number was dropping by the minute.

Ethan Andrews can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com