A powerful storm dropped heavy rain and drove strong winds that knocked out power across areas of Maine.

Thousands of Mainers woke up in the dark Thursday morning. Most outages were in the Midcoast, Downeast and northern Maine regions.

Versant Power this morning reported more than 60,000 customers were without power, including nearly all of Caribou, Presque Isle and Deer Isle. 

Nearly 60,000 still remained in the dark as of 12:30 p.m.

Central Maine Power reported over 20,000 customers were without electricity as of 6:30 a.m. By 12:30 p.m., that number had dropped to just over 9,500.

Both companies said they were prepared to respond when it is safe to do so, with an increased number of crews on standby.

Despite the outages, the Maine Emergency Management Agency said Maine did well overall.

"While power outages were widespread, they did not reach as high of a number as they potentially could have," said MEMA Spokesperson Vanessa Corson. "Lots of downed trees for communities to clean up, but overall the state seemed to fare well and that’s a huge relief."