Around the Region

By Elna Seabrooks
Staff Writer
Stacyville girl still hospitalized
    Doctors are not sure how long an 11-year-old girl from Stacyville will remain in a Boston Hospital after surviving a serious accident June 2 when severe weather ripped across a wide swath of Aroostook and Penobscot counties.
    In Stacyville, a Penobscot County town, the storm pulled down a tree and a power line with it that burned Allison Botting, her sister and a male friend of the girls’ mother. All were treated for injuries, locally. But, Botting, the most seriously injured, was later transported to Shriners Hospital for Children in Boston for severe burns.
    According to a Stacyville resident close to the family, who asked to remain unnamed, Botting is still being treated in Boston, but nothing has been amputated, contrary to published reports. Donations for Allison’s care can be made payable to the Botting family and sent to the town office in Stacyville, PO Box 116 Stacyville, ME 04777.
Tornado touched down
    Mark Turner, National Weather Service hydrologist, confirmed that “a small but significant tornado touched down around 5:05 p.m. near Shin Pond on Grand Lake Rd. with 70-80 mph winds that came down out of the cloud into the tree tops,” June 2.
    Turner added that several large trees were uprooted or snapped during the storm that lasted about an hour. The tornado, he said, lasted less than 10 minutes with its track heading west to east about three miles long and about 500 yards wide.
Unstable weather may be ahead
    Turner warned that any storm resulting from the collision of two air masses in the summer “can be pretty nasty.” He explained that “we’re coming out of the winter and spring and we are going into summer. This is definitely our convective season. It looks like sunny skies for the end of the week. But, you’re just not out of the woods in the whole summer season. It really depends on conflict of the air masses in the area and where they happen.”