Saturday, April 21, 2007
Staff photo by Doug Jones
Superintendent Willis Emmons closes a trap door after photographing oil that spilled from containment tanks into the basement of the Kennebunk Sewer Department's process building. About 2,000 gallons of fuel oil leaked when the building flooded after Monday's storm. A contractor was hired to pump out and process the fuel oil.
The financial toll of a hurricane-force storm that blew through Maine earlier this week continues to creep upward, with the estimated damage to public property alone reaching $37 million on Friday.
More than three-quarters of the damage is in Cumberland and York counties, but officials cautioned that damage estimates for at least two coastal counties remain incomplete. No statewide figures are available yet for private property damage.
Also Friday, about 2,200 homes and businesses, mostly in the midcoast region, went without electricity for the fifth consecutive day. Central Maine Power Co. said it hopes to finish repair work today.
While state officials waited for a response to their request for a federal disaster declaration, they were paid a visit by Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator R. David Paulison.
Paulison met in Portland with Gov. John Baldacci and Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins before touring the Camp Ellis section of Saco, where beachfront homes suffered serious structural damage.
Paulison said he hopes FEMA's preliminary damage assessments in Maine will be finished by this afternoon. He plans to take the agency's findings to President Bush, who will make a decision on whether to declare 13 Maine counties a disaster area. A disaster declaration would trigger eligibility for federal loan assistance, and would prompt FEMA and the Small Business Administration to set up a disaster recovery center in Maine.
Coincidentally, FEMA announced late Friday that federal disaster aid has been made available for damage caused by the storm of March 16-18. The declaration provides money for flooding damage in Hancock, Knox, Lincoln and Waldo counties.
The extent of damage from this week's storm became clearer Friday during a second straight day of sunny skies.
In Portland, the storm undermined waterfront piers and sea walls and trails around Back Cove, said Fire Chief Fred LaMontagne.
Some of the most severe damage occurred on the islands of Casco Bay, where shoreland was eroded and thousands of trees were lost.
"The impact? It's been tremendous," LaMontagne said.
In Falmouth, state conservation officials said the hiking trail on Mackworth Island has been closed indefinitely because of damage from heavy rain and winds that reached the speeds of a Category 1 hurricane.
There also were washouts on the causeway that connects the island to the mainland. Access to the island, which is home to the Maine Educational Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, is being restricted.
"The blowdowns have obliterated the trail in some places," Mackworth Island manager Mickey Rogers said in a prepared statement.
Miles inland, several roads were washed out in the town of Casco, said local Emergency Management Director Irene Morton. She said Cooks Mills Road may be home to the town's biggest storm-produced hole.
"You could put a tractor-trailer right in it," Morton said.
Throughout Cumberland County, the estimated damage to roads, bridges and other public property exceeds $10 million, and the estimated private losses are more than $9 million.
In York County, the storm's consequences appear to be even more severe, with an estimated $18 million in damage to public property. Much of the attention has been focused on the coastal communities of Saco and Kennebunk. But several roads in the western part of the county have also been damaged, said Rick Davis, assistant director of the York County Emergency Management Agency.
In coastal Lincoln County, which suffered widespread damage, only one community has reported estimated costs to the state. And county EMA director Tim Pellerin said it may be weeks or months before the full extent of the damage is determined, because many of the region's homes are only used seasonally.
"We're not going to know until people show up in the first week of June and say, 'Where's my dock?'" he said.
By early Friday evening, Central Maine Power reported it had whittled the number of outages to about 2,200, down from 11,000 on Thursday and 127,000 earlier in the week. Outages were expect to continue until today in parts of Boothbay, Georgetown, Harpswell, Nobleboro, Phippsburg and Southport, CMP said.
About 2,100 cable TV, Internet and digital phone subscribers also remained without service Friday, said Peter DeWitt, a spokesman for Time Warner Cable of Maine.
He said the cable company has been facing challenges similar to the power company, including difficulties in gaining access to damaged areas.
Earlier in the day, state officials announced emergency loan programs for people whose property was damaged. The loan programs will take effect if a federal disaster is declared.
The Maine State Housing Authority said it plans to lend residents of the affected counties up to $15,000 for home repairs and $303,000 for home replacement. To learn more, people can call the housing authority at 626-4600.
The Finance Authority of Maine said it plans to reduce its interest rate to 2 percent on one-year business loans of $75,000 or less. For more information, business owners can call (800) 228-3734.
Staff Writer Kevin Wack can be contacted at 791-6365 or at:
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No. The poles are now more exposed. And they are carrying more than they did before the ice storm of nine years ago -- new cables having been added to existing poles. The reason I did not get power back for almost 4 days was because of a downed pole nearby. So said a guy from New York who had been called in to work on the lines. The event of a downed pole is likely to increase the next time the wind blows. What is CMP going to do about it? Maybe they can improve their outage reporting operation. It will be needed.report abuse
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