Whiteout conditions occurred late Saturday and early Sunday during a blizzard.
Whiteout conditions hindered plow and sand crews as they tried to keep up with fast and heavy snow falls in Franklin County Saturday and Sunday.
Eight or nine trucks from several towns went off the road. A few ended up tipped on their sides as they tried to navigate the snow, said Franklin County Sheriff’s Dispatcher Bill Hoyt.
Road crews worked throughout the massive weekend nor’easter. The storm dumped up to 52 inches in Franklin County. Rangeley measured 40 inches and more than 4 feet fell on nearby Saddleback Mountain.
“It was a whiteout; they couldn’t see,” said Farmington Public Works Superintendent Mitch Boulette.
The whiteout conditions occurred late Saturday and early Sunday during a blizzard warning period posted by the National Weather Service
One of Farmington’s trucks carrying a sand and salt mix tipped onto its side as the driver was trying to plow Webster Road, a narrow back road off Knowlton Corner Road, Boulette said.
The driver was shook up but not hurt. The truck wasn’t damaged, Boulette said.
A wrecker stood it upright Sunday after Farmington firefighters helped unload sand to limit damage.
Another one of Farmington’s trucks slid off the road a couple of times due to the weather, Boulette said.
Farmington public works crew planned to be out at midnight Monday to start snow removal, Boulette said.
Department of Transportation Division 7 engineer Norm Haggan said his crew did an “excellent job” as they worked to clear roads.
“We didn’t have to close any roads,” he said. “They fought (the snow) real hard. There were very few cars on the road. We were lucky, it was a weekend storm… We fared better than some of the towns.”
Wilton Highway Department foreman Ken Vining said as bad as the storm was, things went smoothly. There were no major breakdowns or mishaps. There were a couple of times trucks got stuck but drivers helped each other out, he said.
Wilton received about 30 inches of snow, he said.
“I’ve worked for the town for 27 years and this was the worst storm I’ve ever seen,” Vining said. “It was whiteout all night.”
dperry@sunjournal.com
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