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FORT KENT — Mercifully, the rivers have retreated.

Now the hard part begins.

In towns across northern Maine, particularly in the hard-hit St. John River Valley, residents are cleaning up and assessing the damage from the most extensive flooding in their lifetimes.

"We're just trying to air it out and dry it up," Bert Roy said, as he hauled out the few pieces of furniture that could be salvaged from an apartment shared by his two brothers on East Main Street.

"We'll be ripping out the carpet and the floors this weekend. We'll have to see about the drywall," Roy said.

The homes and businesses here came back to life Friday morning, after officials lifted the blockade that had been set up Wednesday. Flatbed trucks stacked with plywood rumbled by, and the buzz of gas-powered water pumps could be heard throughout the day.

This morning, engineers from Maine and Canada plan to inspect the International Bridge that connects Fort Kent to Clair, New Brunswick.

That inspection could determine whether the bridge reopens today, or if repairs will be needed before opening it again to the public. The bridge, built in the 1930s, is already on a list of bridges that receives extra checks each year from the Maine Department of Transportation because of its age.

Gov. John Baldacci formally requested expedited federal assistance Friday to help the state respond to the disaster.

Art Cleaves, the FEMA director for the Northeast, expects the disaster aid request to be approved and expedited. Financial assistance could be available to qualified residents within the next few weeks.

In the meantime, the Red Cross and several other organizations, both public and private, are helping residents with immediate needs.

The St. John River, the major artery that defines the international border here, had fallen well below flood stage Friday night. It crested at over 30 feet late Wednesday, shattering the previous record.

Overall, flooding impacted at least eight communities in Aroostook County, and a handful of others farther south. Residents of nearly 200 homes were evacuated, and many will not be able to return for weeks.

Baldacci and all four members of Maine's congressional delegation toured the region by helicopter Friday morning. Republican Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, and Democratic Reps. Tom Allen and Mike Michaud landed in Fort Kent around noon, where they met with residents and emergency crews.

"We're going to work together and we're going to start to rebuild things," Baldacci told the crowd at the Lonesome Pines ski center, which has been the government command center this week.

"You never lost your composure. You had it organized, you had your arms around it," Baldacci said.

Cleaning out on Main Street, Bert Roy said the people of the valley are industrious and resilient, and they rely on one another in times of need.

"It's all about helping each other out," said Roy, standing on the soaked carpet with his brothers, Roger and Lucien. "This community is unreal. If you ask for help, you get it."

Down the street, lifelong Fort Kent resident Betty Gagnon echoed those words, as she struggled to hold back tears.

"Everyone has been amazing," Gagnon said. "I have had so much help."

At her apartment, the water had flooded all the way up to the top of her kitchen cabinets. On Friday, the entire basement remained under water.

Earlier this spring, Gagnon was worried about the potential for floods, so she brought several boxes of personal belongings up from the basement and set them in an outdoor breezeway near her door.

Most of those items were swept away. She could see some of them, things like shoes and flower pots, floating 50 yards away in the still retreating Fish River.

"My job, as soon as I can swim out there, is to see what I can find," Gagnon said. She doesn't know when she will...