by Caroline Spear
The sounds of chainsaws resound around the Island this week as clean-up continues from the storm of Thursday night, February 25, into early morning Friday the 26th. The storm struck hard: not only was the entire Island, particularly the east side, affected by downed trees and power outages, but Hancock County was the most severely affected area in the state. There is “significant damage to the electrical system in Hancock County,” according to Bangor Hydro media contact Susan Faloon.
For many, life was totally disrupted until well into Sunday, longer for some: loss of sleep Thursday night, clean-up duties, dealing with life without lights, water and heat for several days, with schools closed Friday. Some town and main roads were closed until downed trees could be removed while homeowners down long driveways had to “saw themselves out.” People who have generators fared somewhat better in keeping life on an even keel.
The most significant storm damage here occurred in the wee hours of Friday morning, with unofficial reports of gusts at 70 mph and 84 mph (74 mph is category 1 hurricane strength), and 94 mph at the bottom of Caterpillar Hill. The weather station on the Stonington fish pier stopped relaying data to the National Weather Service in Caribou once the power was out Thursday night. The last recorded gust at the pier was 55 mph at 9 p.m. Thursday.
According to Jim Cameron, manager of line operations with Bangor Hydro, “We are finding damage very similar to the “microburst” that came through the area two years ago and caused so much infrastructure damage. Winds from this storm were pretty much directly out of the east, so those coastal-facing properties were the most impacted.
“Restoration efforts were extremely difficult due to the number of downed trees and damage caused to poles and wires. There were no easy fixes with this storm—most every trouble ticket required a lot of time to repair.
“At the worst point in 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 substation.”
Media updates from Bangor Hydro note that line crews have been reporting that trees near power lines have been cut or tied back. The updates state, “Contact with power lines or trees touching them could be deadly and customers should call Bangor Hydro’s Customer Service Center to report these situations.”
Deer Isle road commissioner Paul Gray said there were 50 or more trees down along main roads in Deer Isle. He appreciates the help he was given in the clean-up by fire department members, the town’s road crews and private individuals, and said he was “very pleased it was only rain, not snow.” According to the National Weather Service, Deer Isle received 1.75 inches of rain. Temperatures did not dip below freezing during the storm and for two days afterward.
Stonington road commissioner Frank Kruger said this week that he will spend another day or so picking up trees and brush that have been cut off wires by Bangor Hydro. Like Deer Isle’s Gray, he also plowed broken trees off roadways during the storm. There was no major flooding from the rains, Kruger said; the recent drainage work in Oceanville and Greenhead “worked perfect.”
By no means is the clean-up completed.
Hundred of trees in the woods are down and many private and smaller public roads are still one lane wide, awaiting clean-up.
Among the reports of damage received:
- An observer of Hatch Cove Road in Oceanville called it a war zone, with downed trees and wires along most of its length.
- Homes on Cat Cove were struck by trees, but with no serious damage; one house has 30 trees down in the yard, according to caretaker Steve Johnson.
- Reach Road and Fish Creek/Oak Point areas of the Island were equally hard hit. The scenario there is similar to that of the entire east side of the Island: poles snapped and trees down in woods and along roads. Flags on graves in the Forest Hill Cemetery on Reach Road were blown sideways by the winds while some gravestone decorations remained intact.
- On Sunset Cross Road, it was reported that three vehicles belonging to Pete and Suzette Grindle were totaled when a clump of trees fell on them.
- On Pumping Station Road in Stonington, it was reported that the roof blew off Becky Eaton’s trailer.
- Harbormaster Steve Johnson said he’d heard that one boat broke loose from its mooring, and a few dinghies sank at the fish pier floats.
Nancy Gross, the Ad-Vantages’ weather correspondent, said she had never seen sustained wind quite as strong in her 35 years in Oceanville. Gross recorded 2.25 inches of rain February 25 at her Oceanville weather station, and 1.08 inches on the 26th.
Early this week, Bangor Hydro crews were continuing to reconnect customers in remote areas. Power was restored down Route 15 on Friday afternoon, but many Islanders didn’t see their power return until Sunday afternoon, February 28, having been without since late Thursday night.
A Bangor Hydro lineman dispatched Friday with a crew from Bangor was heard to say that he thought he’d not be home before Monday. After a second wind storm Sunday night, February 28, with gusts to 55 mph from the northeast, he was probably right. While Washington County was hardest hit in the second storm, the compromised trees and electrical infrastructure meant more outages here.
From Isle au Haut, resident and fire department volunteer Kate Taylor reports that the main road was cleared quickly, but private homeowners and caretakers are still working on roads blocked by downed trees—“absolutely tons of trees down,” she said. The island was without power for eight to nine hours, until the back-up generator could be started. One mooring let loose, its boat damaged but repairable.
Taylor reported that at least three homes were damaged, “that I know of. Two homes sustained minor damage and one sustained a major hit.”
“One gentleman said his bed bounced across the floor as the high winds hit his house…and some people also found that doors in their homes would fly open as wind expanded their house slightly!” Taylor said.
Share this page
Return to the Island Ad-Vantages home page.
Cart
