Maine flooding: aftermath of storm - The Boston Globe

Maine flooding: aftermath of storm

HALLOWELL, Maine ― This time of year, Water Street in this city just outside Augusta is usually busy with people shopping for antiques, grabbing a coffee, or perhaps having a beer and a bite at the Quarry Tap Room.

Except on Tuesday, Water Street was underwater.

A storm that lashed much of New England and wide swaths of Maine especially hard on Monday flooded parts of Hallowell, with water reaching a foot high on Central and Water Streets. A day later, the Kennebec River was rushing angrily along the downtown, its levels steadily climbing.

The storm also forced the shutdown of the Sunday River and Sugarloaf ski areas just as the popular resorts enter their high season with families visiting over the Christmas and New Year’s holidays.

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The heavy rains came just months after Maine experienced its wettest summer since 1917, events that could become more common as the climate warms.

Steve Lachance, co-owner of the Quarry Tap Room, was busily shuttling tables, chairs, and other equipment into a U-Haul vehicle parked nearby. “There’s 10, 12 feet of water down in the basement right now,” he said on Tuesday afternoon, as the river coursed over what is normally his patio.

And he was fearful the swelling Kennebec would eventually flood his main floor. “We didn’t anticipate this,” he said.

On Tuesday, much of New England was assessing damage from the storm, which pummeled the region with powerful winds and torrential rain, flooding rivers, toppling trees, and felling utility lines. At least two men in Massachusetts and two people in Maine were killed during the storm, while police in Mexico, Maine, searched Tuesday for two people swept away in the flood waters of the Swift River. The Saco River in Bartlett, N.H., rose about 10 feet.

In Massachusetts, about 58,000 customers were still without power Tuesday evening.

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In Cranston, R.I., the Pawtuxet River reached the “major flooding” stage Tuesday morning — the only one in the state to do so, according to the National Weather Service. In Cumberland, R.I., firefighters used kayaks to evacuate 18 dogs from a shelter run by the New England Humane Society after the Blackstone River flooded.

And in Maine, Monday’s storm dumped more than 7 inches of rain in Newry, near the New Hampshire border, while other areas reported rainfall totals of 4 inches or more. And for much of Tuesday, flood warnings were in place for vast sections of central Maine, including Piscataquis County, according to the National Weather Service.

Governor Janet Mills declared a state of civil emergency for 14 Maine counties, which mobilizes state resources to assist in response and recovery efforts in those areas. The declaration also positions Maine to receive federal disaster support in the coming weeks, the governor’s office said.

A man in Windham and another man in Fairfield were killed by falling trees during the storm, according to media reports.

As of midafternoon, there were about 400,000 power outages across Maine, said Peter J. Rogers, the director of the Maine Emergency Management Agency in Augusta. Central Maine Power and Versant Power, the state’s largest electrical utilities, both expected repairs to take several days, and Central Maine Power reported having crews from New York and Connecticut helping to restore service.

Rogers said the response effort has also been hindered somewhat by downed trees and fallen utility wires that have closed roads.

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Rogers said state officials were advising residents to stay home and allow crews to do their work.

“There’s still a number of roads that are closed, there are still a lot of washouts and water across the roads,” Rogers said. “And we’re urging people to stay — if they can stay home — to please do that, [and] let the rescue and recovery effort move forward.”

Forecasters in Maine predicted clear, sunny skies through the rest of the week, though temperatures should become increasingly chilly.

In Bethel, about a 10-minute drive from Sunday River, Route 26 remained impassable and underwater Tuesday morning, cutting off access to the town center from the south. Laurie Swan, 52, a lifelong resident of Bethel, said people living in a trailer park on the other side of the flood waters were essentially “surrounded by a pond.”

“They’re stuck,” she said.

George Greenwood, a 33-year-old Rhode Island resident in town to renovate a house, was out looking for a bite to eat and a place to recharge his phone. Melinda Remington, a 71-year-old retired teacher, offered to help: she had a generator, she said, and she would feed him.

“There are hearty folks around here, so they help each other out,” Remington said.

Elsewhere in western Maine, the storm’s carnage was visible throughout the area.

In addition to Route 26 being flooded out, multiple back roads were also underwater. Wherever you went, locals were discussing the storm: what roads were open, and what roads weren’t; who had power, who didn’t.

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On Route 2, not far from Sunday River, two tractor trailers sat jack-knifed across the entirety of the road, where they had been since the previous night’s flooding, according to the drivers who were still at the scene.

The cab of one of the huge trucks was in a swampy ditch on the side of the road. The other truck was wedged in between guard rails located across the road from one another. It had crashed into a Volkswagen sedan, which still sat there hours after the accident.

The Sunday River resort said it will remain closed at least partly into Wednesday while it assesses damage to the ski facilities. Outside the main entrance to Sunday River Grand Summit Hotel, flood waters had swept away an entire chunk of road, making it impassable for cars. Large excavators worked to fill in the gap with rocks Tuesday afternoon.

“The power of Mother Nature,” said Jesper Andersson as he watched the machines work from across the street. Andersson and Maria Tarazona had driven up from Cambridge to ski. Now they were thinking of going to Loon Mountain in New Hampshire.

“It would’ve been so nice if it was three feet of snow instead,” Tarazona said.

Further north, Sugarloaf said it was preparing to reopen Thursday, after its mountain crews assess conditions.

In Hallowell, down the road from Lachance’s restaurant, a medical marijuana dispensary called the Frost Factory had been mostly emptied out and the cabinetry put up on cinder blocks.

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An employee, Morgan Rush, watched as the water rose 10 inches in just an hour.

”It just keeps on coming,” Rush said with a shrug. “What can you do? For this, all we can do is what we can.”

Sabrina Shankman can be reached at sabrina.shankman@globe.com. Follow her @shankman. Danny McDonald can be reached at daniel.mcdonald@globe.com. Follow him @Danny__McDonald. John Hilliard can be reached at john.hilliard@globe.com.