05/01/2008
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Staff photo by Joe Phelan
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Staff photo by Joe Phelanfrom the Kennebec Journal
MCCAIN HUNTS MAINERS
High gas costs spur innovations for area sports teams
Enthusiastic fans greet Todd Palin in Palmyra campaign appearance
Student software 'powerful'
'AUTISM 101' WHAT CAN BE DONE?
Skowhegan man hopes bat business will be hit
Turcotte, Raiders pull out tough win
Cony 3rd at states
All of today's:
News | Sports
from the Kennebec Journal
from the Morning Sentinel
Schools look to cut athletic-transportation costs
Maine now on McCain radar
Economic news not encouraging to job seekers
Todd Palin stumps for GOP ticket at stop in Palmyra
J.P. DEVINE: Another generation watches tables turn
His turn at bat
Skowhegan's Quinn climbs coaching ladder
HIGH SCHOOL GOLF: Deering surprise team champ
All of today's:
News | Sports
from the Morning Sentinel
Bustin, owner of The Wharf pub for the past six years, is a veteran of the vagaries of Mother Nature: He said he's had to make a fast retreat six different times, three of them in one year.
"When (Hallowell Police Chief Eric Nason) called us, we were out in six hours," he said.
Bustin's landlord, Cliff Vining, who owns buildings along Water Street, said Bustin has the move in and out down to a science because the river floods his business so often.
"There's probably at least 2 feet of water in there," Vining said of The Wharf's western rooms. "I shut off all my propane tanks this morning about 5 o'clock, because if they move it could break the pipes, and this is probably one of the lowest locations in the whole area."
He said his buildings' heating systems are set high so they can survive most floods.
Both he and Bustin have flood insurance, Vining said, but experience has shown the bar owner how to be back in business quickly.
"They'll come in and within 24 hours they'll be open because they've done it so many times. They'll have it done and all sanitized," Vining said.
Nason said his department started getting warnings of the impending flood from weather and emergency management officials on Monday, and began warning building and business owners by placing notices on cars and trucks.
"We started notification on Monday and again on Tuesday, passing on what information we had on to people," Nason said. "It's about what we expected. If anything, just a little more."
He said his department and other emergency officials began preparing for worse flooding two or three months ago when parts of the state had record snow depths.
"All it would have taken is some rain and melting early on and we would have been in for it," Nason said. "The potential was there for a substantial flood."
Kennebec County Emergency Management Agency Director Kelly Amoroso said the Kennebec River was at 18 feet Wednesday afternoon in Augusta, where river water above 12 feet is considered a flood.
"Right now, we're a little above 6 feet over flood stage," she said. "They are expecting it to be below flood stage by early tomorrow evening, so it should be dropping pretty quickly... and the next couple of days will be nice so things can dry out."
The Augusta area received nearly 4 inches of rain over the course of the storm, she said.
"In Whitefield, we got at least 5 inches," Richard Beausoleil, a volunteer weather observer for the National Weather Service, said.
He is also Kennebec County Emergency Management Agency Communications and Training Coordinator.
There is potential for as much as 1 to 3 inches of rain possible through the weekend and into next week, according to National Weather Service hydrologist Tom Hawley.
He said the Kennebec River in Augusta has the potential to rise to 19 feet early Wednesday evening.
"It looks like the first half of next week will be unsettled with a chance of rain," Hawley said, "but it's hard to say for sure."
That rain will affect the already swollen rivers but there are too many factors to make accurate predictions, he said.
"The rivers will come up. Whether they'll hit flood stage, I couldn't tell you. It depends on how low the rivers get," Hawley said.
Nason was concerned upriver dams might have to release built-up water. But Amoroso said initial indications do not suggest that will happen.
"They said yesterday the Kennebec was staying a little higher than normal, but they didn't indicate they'd have to do anything differently," she said.
Aroostook County is being hit particularly hard by this latest round of floods. And because all of Maine's county emergency management agencies have mutual aid agreements, calls from help from Aroostook County may affect any emergency effort needed here.
"They have asked who's available. They haven't said they need anybody yet. But if they need us, we'll send a couple of people," Amoroso said. "Right now they're sending people to assess the situation and see what is needed rather than sending a lot of resources that are not what they're looking for."
Amoroso said most of Kennebec County's flooding was limited to Augusta, Hallowell and Gardiner parking lots along the river waterfronts. But she said some communities experienced street flooding and roadway damage when rain waters backed up storm drains.
Several roads in Clinton, she said, had to be closed during the night due to localized flooding, and some of those roads will require repairs before they can be reopened.
In Augusta, the river stretched across the riverfront parking lots and entered the basements of a handful of Water Street buildings.
Beausoleil said he inspected the building housing Java Joe's Corner Cafe and found 4 feet of water in the cellar.
Roger Beaulieu of Vickery-Downing Associates, owner of five Augusta downtown buildings, said flood water affected a few of his company's buildings, mostly with a light coating of water.
"It's minimal. It's cleanup," Beaulieu said. "Since the flood of '87, a lot of stuff has been raised to the level above. All our furnaces have been raised to the second level, but in the Vickery Building, there's an elevator. And that will require some maintenance."
Gary Remal -- 621-5642
gremal@centralmaine.com
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