Staff Writer
CARIBOU — Power outages, poor driving conditions, and flooding that resulted from a moderate snowfall followed by rain made last week a rough one for many Aroostook residents. Caribou saw 3.8 inches of snow between Dec. 9 and 10, which was followed by 4.1 inches of snow accompanied by .4 inches of ice between Dec. 11 and 12.
Aroostook Republican photo/Natalie Bazinet
Though last weeks precipitation caused power outages, flooding, and slick driving conditions, it was nothing that the Caribou Department of Public Works couldn’t handle. Using machinery and manpower, the Public Works staff removed most of the packed snow and ice from the city streets.
According to Todd Lericos, Meteorologist and Science Operations Officer at the National Weather Service in Caribou, Friday’s precipitation started as snow in the early hours of the morning but changed around 6:30 a.m. to freezing rain that lasted until about noon when it turned into rain.
Tree branches that broke under the weight of the heavy precipitation caused about 1,700 citizens of Caribou and New Sweden to lose power according to Virginia Joles, Director of Communication, Board Relations, and Economic Development at Maine Public Service; out of the 1342 residents of New Sweden that lost power, most of them had power restored under two hours. About 40 New Sweden residents lost power for approximately 5 hours.
In Caribou, around 360 customers had to go without power for about an hour until Maine Public Service crews could clear the branches and repair the lines.
“We caution folks to stay away from down power lines and report them to us,” Joles said. She also encouraged customers who experience a disruption of service to report their outage.
Though the area did experience power outages and some flooding, no accidents were reported due to the weather on Dec. 12.
This may be due to the hard work of the Caribou Public Works Department; on Friday, when many schools and government offices were closed, the Public Works staff started their day at 3:30am.
“We haven’t had real bad slippery conditions until today,” said Public Works Director David Ouellette on Friday afternoon, “but we’ll get them fixed. We have an excellent maintenance staff, veteran drivers, and a hard working crew. I don’t know what we’d do without them,” he added.
Some challenges that the weather posed for the Public Works department included ensuring that the water didn’t collect in the middle of the roads, keeping the water flowing into the catch basins so that it drained properly, and trying to get the ice scraped off the roads so that smooth and safe driving conditions were restored.
“When the rain is behind the snow, it makes so much work it’s unbelievable,” Ouellette said. “Everyone here says the same thing,” he added with a laugh, “we’ll take the snow, but we’ll leave the rain.”
Though the public has been cooperative in keeping the streets clear for the plows and other snow removal equipment, the weight of the snow has caused a misunderstanding for a few customers.
“A couple of customers think that the plows are hitting their mail boxes,” Ouellette explained, “but it’s the weight of the snow that knocks them over most of the time.”
Anyone who had to shovel a walk or push a snow blower knows how heavy the snow was this previous week, and the Public Works department has come to expect such conditions during early winter.
“Typically in the start of winter, the snow is wet and heavy.” Ouellette said, “We have been getting a fair amount of rain and it’s a little worse than normal, but it’s not overwhelming.”
Ouellette encourages drivers to slow down when the weather is bad.
“Speed is what hurts,” he said, “drivers have more control at lower speeds especially during the storm.”
Whereas Aroostook residents know that winter is far from over, Maine Public Service and the Caribou Department Public Works will remain hard at work to keep winter weather as manageable as possible.
During this past weeks weather, other parts of the state were impacted worse than Aroostook County.
This past week, Maine Public Service sent two crews south to Central Maine Power in order to help them restore power to other Mainers.
“We’re almost back together,” Joles said on Friday afternoon, “out of 36,000 customers, only 40 in New Sweden are still without power, and it’s looking that our crews here will have our systems fully operational on Saturday. If we’re okay in our area, we try to help out where we can.”
