Northern Seacoast digs out after weathering 2016's final blast

Prospect Hill Road in Lebanon was found pretty well cleared of snow today ... but all the mailboxes not so much. (Lebanon Voice photo)

From Gonic to Milton Mills and from Eastside to East Lebanon, Northern Seacoast residents are digging out today after the year's final snowstorm packed a windy winter wallop on Thursday night into this morning.

About a foot to a foot and a half fell through much of the area, but with winds gusting to 30 mph drifts often made it look like a lot more.

Despite the strong wind gusts Lebanon suffered no power outages, while today a CMP spokesman said a little over 3,000 households in Sanford were still without power. Meanwhile, no major power outages were reported in Rochester and Milton.

Just like the storm earlier this month, Rochester Capt. Gary Boudreau reported that residents for the most part stayed off the road and let snow removal crews do their jobs.

Boudreau said today that just one accident and three cars off the road were reported overnight, with no serious personal injuries reported.

Meanwhile, Maine State Police Trooper Michael Lane said there had been no serious accidents in Lebanon during the storm, while Milton Police were not immediately available. Northeast Fire Alerts, which posts major accidents and fires across New Hampshire and Maine showed no serious incidents in the area during the storm.

While motorists took precautions and stayed off the roads snowplow operators took the opportunity to rake in some cold cash.

A-1 Snow Plowing & Sanding owner Tim Moreau said he'd been at it all day, plowing out and sanding driveways in Milton, Milton Mills, Lebanon and Sanford.

"It's been very busy, we got about 16 inches in Milton Mills, and we've been nonstop," said Moreau, who lives in Milton and also operates A1 Firewood.