Lights Out: 25 years since historic Ice Storm of '98 slammed Maine

It’s been 25 years since Maine was encased in ice.

The Ice Storm of ’98 left hundreds of thousands of Mainers without power for several weeks. Eight people died, making it the deadliest natural disaster in Maine history.

Anyone who lived through the Ice Storm of ’98 still has vivid memories. Roughly 900,000 Mainers lost power at one point or another in that devastating, days-long storm.

• Also read: Lack of cell phones, social media had major impact on Ice Storm of '98

The sights and sounds were eerie, and the damage was unbelievable.

The forecast had called for ice, and slick roads but no one expected what was to come.

As that first night fell, so did the trees and powerlines.

“This is obviously some very large trees that are coming down, being knocked down by the force of this ice. So, it's not just the little branches that are being bowed down by the weight here. There are some sizeable branches that are getting knocked over by the weight of all of this ice. And this is what the CMP crews have been up against,” CBS13’s Gregg Lagerquist reported in 1998.

"While our crews are out working hard and have been all morning, we're not making a whole lot of progress. As soon as we restore power somewhere, someone else goes down. We got this going yesterday afternoon and we're right back where we started,” said Mark Ishkanian, the CMP spokesman in 1998.

The ice storm itself would last for days. The power outages lasted for several weeks. At one time or another, three out of every four Mainers lost power.

• Also read: Ice storm took firefighter's leg, but not his spirit

Eight Mainers lost their lives, many from carbon monoxide poisoning as people tried to heat their homes with generators.

In all, 18,000 miles of power lines came down in the Ice Storm of ‘98.

Power crews became heroes as they slowly restored power. And over those dark, exhausting weeks, Mainers came together for friends, family, the elderly, and neighbors.

“Call them up. That's what I did on the way over here today, tonight. I called two, two of my neighbors. And I just wanted to be sure they were alright,” then-Governor Angus King said in 1998.

• Also read: How the Ice Storm of '98 formed

To this day, there is still evidence of the storm's damage in some of the trees and in some of the disaster response plans Maine developed to deal with any future natural disasters.

Although we think we can all agree that one massive ice storm is enough to last a lifetime.