Heavy rain in western Maine flooded and iced roads Wednesday, halting 150 vehicles on Route 2 in Gilead, causing others to float down Route 232 in Woodstock and prompting Canton to evacuate its fire station and school library.

In Lewiston, a truck driver bailed out of his vehicle as it slid into a train.

“It’s gonna be a long night,” said Dan Shorr, director of the Oxford County Emergency Management Agency. “We’re going to see the worst problems this evening and tomorrow morning, and we’re just going to have to ride it out.”

Schorr said ice jams on the Androscoggin River could isolate Rumford Thursday if flooding closes Route 108 and Route 140 in Canton and Route 2 in Bethel.

“The Canton folks are keeping a good eye on their situation. Other towns have been alerted and we’re still trying to alert people. The worst is yet to come,” Schorr said.

Schorr urged people to call the Oxford County regional communications center in Paris at 743-9554 or 800-733-1421 if they notice water coming into their basements. Help can be dispatched, he said, and emergency shelters can be opened if needed.

National Weather Service hydrologist Tom Hawley in Gray said western Maine – away from the mountains – could expect heavy rain between 6 p.m. and midnight Wednesday. The rain wasn’t expected to end until 2 a.m. Thursday.

“Some places are going to see two inches of rain or more,” Hawley said.

Art Lester of the National Weather Service office in Gray said as of 7 p.m. Rumford had 1.27 inches of rain.

A flash flood watch issued by the weather service on Tuesday for western Maine and southern New Hampshire, remains in effect through Thursday.

The rain slicked roads, too.

“I’ve been in law enforcement since 1987 and I’ve never seen roads as bad as they were tonight,” Oxford County Deputy Ian Tait said Wednesday.

He was on Route 2 in Gilead on the Maine-New Hampshire border where rain glazed the curvy highway, sending a tanker trailer into a stuck pulpwood truck. There were no injuries, he said.

He said the highway was closed from about 5 to 7 p.m. because it was iced over in the area known as “the ledges.” There were 150 vehicles held up, he said, until the road was sanded.

Shortly after it reopened a tanker truck from Superior Carrier of Topsham, Ill, came down a hill and sideswiped a pulp truck from Vermont that was stuck beside the road, Tait said.

The tanker was sent on to the Gilead Fire Station to get out of the way of traffic.

Neither Dempsey Whited, 61, of Hillsboro, N.C., in the tanker, nor Norman Hysell, 43, of Warren, N.H., in the Denage Trucking pulp truck were hurt, Tait said. The truck had a total of $12,000 damage.

A state highway truck also got stuck during, he said.

Route 232 closure

Route 232 between Route 26 in Woodstock and Route 2 in Rumford was closed Wednesday night after Meadow Brook overflowed its banks near the Bethel-Woodstock line.

One vehicle with a female occupant stalled, but soon was on its way when a neighbor pushed her car out of the water, said state highway dispatcher Larry Duguay of the Dixfield shed.

A Maine Department of Transportation crew was sent to move some of the snowbanks lining the road so the water could flow back into the nearby field.

A section of Route 26 in Woodstock also was closed to prevent truckers from turning onto Route 232.

Duguay said 13 crews had been dispatched to sites around the region.

“Most every place has some water problems,” he said.

One Bethel firetruck and three firefighters were sent to the site of the heavy water reports along Route 232, said Assistant Fire Chief Mike Jodrey.

National Weather Service observer Dennis Pike recorded 1.92 inches of rain in Farmington by 9 p.m.

“Had this been snow we would have been in the 19-inch range,” he said.

So far for the month of December, Farmington has received 8.36 inches of rain, which Pike said was high but not a record.

On Mount Washington, observer Jeff Derosa said .32 inches fell Wednesday.

There were travel problems in the Twin Cities, too.

Truck hits train

On Strawberry Avenue in Lewiston a truck slammed into the side of a moving train at about 9 a.m. Wednesday when the driver was unable to stop at the railroad crossing.

Police said William Kirk had no choice but to jump out of his company truck as it slid slowly toward the railroad tracks.

Kirk rolled to the ground and then watched as the vehicle slid into the side of an eastbound train. Kirk was not hurt when he bailed from the truck.

“He had no other choice,” said police Lt. Michael McGonagle. “It was a good reaction on his part.”

The train engineer did not realize the train had been struck until he made his next stop miles away and realized several cars were dented and battered. Damage to the train was estimated at $3,000.

Police said Kirk was driving for American Steel and Aluminum, a South Portland company, when he crashed. Damage to the truck was not known Wednesday night. Kirk could not be reached for comment about the wreck.

There were numerous crashes around the Twin Cities as rain turned to ice on frigid roads. Though less dramatic than Kirk’s adventure, collisions and single-vehicle crashes kept police hopping through the early part of the day.

“There were a bunch of accidents,” McGonagle said. “If it’s snowing out, people know right away that they need to be careful. The ice though, it can be a little deceiving, especially if it’s 40 degrees out.”

School officials in the Twin Cities assessed conditions early Wednesday and opted not to close schools. They did, however, postpone an Auburn School Committee meeting scheduled for Wednesday night.

Weather officials said the pattern of snowstorms followed by heavy rains could result in flooding. Forecasters were watching storms to the west that may bring more snow to the northeast next week.

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