County eligible for state funds
to deal with recent flooding
By Scott Mitchell Johnson
Staff Writer
CARIBOU – Though Aroostook was one of four counties in Maine designated to receive state assistance as a result of a December storm, county and state officials aren’t sure yet how the money will be distributed.
Last Wednesday – the day of Gov. Paul LePage’s inauguration – former Gov. John E. Baldacci transferred $100,000 from the State Emergency Contingency Account to help Aroostook, Washington, Penobscot and Piscataquis counties recover from a severe storm that began Dec. 12.
“Washington and Aroostook counties were extremely hard hit by this storm, and they need assistance to recover,” Baldacci said in a press release. “Based on early damage assessments, we had hoped that the counties would qualify for federal disaster aid. That is unlikely to happen. These resources will help these communities to make repairs.”
To qualify for a Presidential Disaster Declaration, the state must be able to document statewide damage of at least $1.65 million. In addition, each individual county must meet its own threshold for damage to receive aid. After preliminary damage assessments conducted by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Maine did not qualify for assistance.
“While we may not have met the federal threshold, the damage is extensive, particularly in Washington County. Maine can’t turn its back on the communities that are suffering,” Baldacci said.
According to Darren Woods, deputy director of the Aroostook County Emergency Management Agency, 16 communities in central and southern Aroostook, as well as the Maine Department of Transportation, filed damage reports related to the storm.
Woods said individual homeowners and businesses do not qualify for state assistance.
“All of the claims filed were related to rain- or flood-related issues,” he said. “When you add all the damage reports together, the estimated total in damages was $268,371. It was pretty extensive.”
Tony Levesque, Fort Fairfield’s flood watch coordinator, said the town experienced issues with culverts.
“The way the runoff was happening – and the amount of moisture, rain and melting snow – it affected almost every culvert in Fort, so it was town-wide,” he said. “Some of those culverts could not handle the capacity that was flowing because it was an extreme event. Those that couldn’t handle it, when the water went across the road instead of through the culvert on the opposite side, it created some erosion problems.
“There were at least three or four severe erosion areas in Fort Fairfield that we had to respond to with barricades and repairs like putting some gravel and riprap up to protect the culvert and the road,” said Levesque. “The MDOT had at least one or two roads here in Fort that they had to do that with, as well. We had about 48 hours of watching water flow.”
Levesque said the town’s estimated storm cost was $33,000.
“That includes damages, debris removal and having to pump water,” he said. “Our dike has a pump station in it, and all the stormwater when we’re having flooding and high water events comes into an area on Main Street. From that area when the river is flooding, it has no place to go so we had to run the pumps a little bit.”
Woods said he doesn’t know how the money is going to be divided up yet.
“We don’t even know how much of the $100,000 is going to come to Aroostook. The last information I got from Augusta is that it hasn’t been laid out yet how they were going to distribute the funds,” he said. “Unfortunately, it doesn’t matter how we distribute the money, not everybody’s going to get everything they need.”
The 16 communities include Amity, Blaine, Caribou, Fort Fairfield, Houlton, Island Falls, Linneus, Littleton, Mars Hill, Presque Isle, Van Buren, Wade, Westfield, Weston, Woodland and the county unorganized territories.
The $100,000 transfer is being made from the State Contingent Account. The authority for the transfer comes from Title 5, subsection 1507, paragraphs 4 and 7, which allow the governor to make the transfer to address an emergency.
After the transfer, the State Contingency Account will have a balance of $200,000 that can be used to address future emergencies.
“The timing of this so close to the transition to the next administration is unfortunate, but we just learned that we would not qualify for federal assistance on Tuesday, Jan. 4,” said Baldacci. “I believe the affected communities need to know what they can expect.”
