NATIONAL BRIEFING / MAINE

Utility crews wearing snowshoes and riding snowmobiles trudged through chest-high snow as they worked to restore electricity to tens of thousands of customers still in the dark a day after a wind-whipped storm barreled through Maine.

Nearly 45,000 homes and businesses were still without power by afternoon, down from the 140,000 customers without electricity at the peak of Monday’s storm, which snapped tree limbs, power lines and utility poles and dropped 2 feet of snow on the region. Electricity is not expected to be totally restored until Thursday night, a Central Maine Power Co. spokesman said.