By JONATHAN THOMAS
Winds at speeds far in excess of hurricane level (defined as 74 miles per hour) roared through coastal sections of Hancock County with eastern exposures during Thursday night and into the early morning hours of Friday, February 26. Large numbers of trees were blown down and blocked roads, took down electric and telephone lines, and damaged buildings and parked vehicles.
Ricky Spofford of Coastal Green Energy reported a high reading of 94 mph recorded by the anemometer on his test tower located in Sargentville just after midnight.
Gordon Gianninoto, whose residence is on top of Caterpillar Hill in Sedgwick, estimated that wind speeds exceeded 100 mph at his location, based upon his observations of 91 mph winds several times in 2006 when he had a working anemometer.
Jim Cameron, manager of line operations for Bangor Hydro Electric Company, said in an e-mail, “We are finding damage very similar to the ‘microburst’ that came through the area two years ago and caused so much infrastructure damage.” Cameron listed areas of Mount Desert Island, as well as Blue Hill, Brooklin, Sedgwick, Deer Isle and Stonington as being most impacted.
A Bangor Hydro press statement on Monday, March 1, said that the company expected to have the remaining customers without power reconnected by the end of the Monday, although a resumption of high winds was hampering their efforts.
Cameron said, “Restoration efforts were extremely difficult due to the number of downed trees and damage caused to BHE poles and wires. There were no easy fixes with this storm—most every trouble ticket required a lot of time to repair.”
Cameron added, “At the worst point of the storm, all customers west of Surry were without power due to the loss of L10, the transmission line serving the Blue Hill and Brooksville substations. Approximately 7,300 customers are served by these two substations [in Blue Hill, Brooklin, Brooksville, Sedgwick, Deer Isle, and Stonington].”
Road crews from the Maine Department of Transportation and area towns, as well as local fire departments, worked long hours from the beginning of the storm to reopen roads blocked by fallen trees. In some instances, road clearing was delayed until linemen from Bangor Hydro, along with crews from Asplundh Tree Expert Co., could cut off power and remove trees from wires.
Surry’s road commissioner Stanley Saunders credited the town’s fire department for its work early Friday morning in keeping Surry’s Newbury Neck Road and other town roads passable.
Blue Hill Fire Chief Denny Robertson said Friday morning that he and other members of his department had been up much of the night monitoring conditions and helping to keep roads clear. He said that more than 60 trees had blown down on Route 175 from South Blue Hill on into Brooklin.
Both Robertson and Brooklin Fire Chief Sam Friend said that during those early morning hours of February 26, they had been in regular contact with John Cousins, who is both a lieutenant on the Sedgwick Fire Department, and the area ranger for the Maine Forest Service.
These officials said that coordination between their departments was essential during such periods of blocked roads. If there were an emergency such as a fire or ambulance call, the quickest response to the scene might be on an alternate route through a neighboring town if the normal direct route was blocked.
In a telephone interview later, Cousins said that as a forest ranger his activities during the storm, doing damage assessment and needs assessment for the towns, were carried out under agreements with the Maine and county emergency management agencies, using portable electronic communication equipment with GPS capability.
Brooklin was particularly hard hit by the storm. Friend said that the major problem areas were on Naskeag Point, Flye Point, Harriman Point, and along Route 175 near the E.B. White house.
Naskeag Point resident Ellen Booraem said that her car was badly damaged (and probably a total loss) after being crushed by a tree that fell in her yard. The good news was that her car saved her husband’s car, which was parked next to it.
Aimee Claybaugh of Brooklin reported that downed trees blocked portions of the Old County Road until it was finally cleared with the help of area residents. She said that she was without electric power for 60 hours, and that it was not restored until Sunday afternoon at about 1:30.
Brooklin Inn owner Chip Angell, aware of the distress being felt by area residents without power, gave notice by word-of- mouth and posters in the general store, that the inn would be serving free dinners, ordered off the menu, to those who were still without power on Sunday evening. He said later that about 10 or 12 people accepted his offer.
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