BY LARRY GRARD

Staff Writer

An alert Mercer resident escaped his Jeep early Wednesday morning just before the road beneath it collapsed and the Jeep fell into a suddenly raging Indian Stream.

Matthew Friedman, 36, was driving his 2001 Jeep Wrangler west on the dirt stretch of Elm Street, near Norridgewock, at about 5 a.m. when rising water on the road created a problem, said State Police Trooper Diane Perkins-Vance on Wednesday.

"He felt he was being swept away and got out," Perkins-Vance said. "It was relatively quick after that. The road just gave way. It looked like a raging stream earlier this morning, but it's not, it's just a bog."

In Waterville, the high winds that caused the power outages also felled a tree and damaged a roof at 31 Central Ave. There were no injuries, police said.

Emergency-management officials reported road closings in New Sharon and Farmington, and that a foot or more of snow had fallen in the northern part of Franklin County.

The National Weather Service in Gray issued a flood warning this morning for the Kennebec River in Skowhegan, affecting Somerset County. The Weather Service also has issued flood warnings for the Kennebec River in North Sidney and Augusta, in Kennebec County, until this morning.

The bog-like stream in Mercer that feeds into the Sandy River suddenly became a raging river as heavy rains fell Tuesday and early Wednesday morning, Perkins-Vance said.

Friedman was not injured, Perkins-Vance said. His Jeep became lodged against a large branch, allowing crews to remove it from the rain-swollen stream late in the morning. The falling Jeep took out what Perkins-Vance described as a culvert "the size of a tractor-trailer."

Franklin County Sheriff Dennis Pike, a weather watcher for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said the Farmington area received 3.6 inches of snow, followed by 3.42 inches of rain, on Wednesday. The base lodge at Sugarloaf got a foot of snow just in time for holiday skiers and some 20 inches dumped onto the summit, Pike said.

Tim Hardy, Franklin County EMA director, said that Intervale Road, in front of Cumberland Farms in Farmington, was closed from 11:30 p.m. Tuesday until early Wednesday.

Route 41 and George Thomas Road in New Sharon both remained closed Wednesday, Hardy said.

"I've never seen rain come down as hard as it did for such a long period," Hardy said. "All night long it came down in sheets."

Wind-blown snow closed Route 4 from Phillips to Rangeley all Tuesday night, Hardy said.

Dale Rowley, EMA director in Waldo County, said the storm caused power outages in every county town, as well as phone outages.

"There were a lot of trees down in the Unity area," Rowley said. "Fire departments in those towns were out all night long, all over the place."

According to weather forecasts, roadways should clear. The Thanksgiving Day forecast calls for intervals of clouds and sunshine, with a high of 42 degrees. Occasional showers are possible on Friday, with highs in the mid-40s.

Larry Grard -- 861-9239

lgrard@centralmaine.com