By Scott Taylor,Staff Writer

LEWISTON – Planning for the worst could help Androscoggin County towns and cities head off disaster, according to emergency management officials.

Lewiston councilors adopted the plan, which identifies 20 projects the city should take on within the next few years to lessen the impact of a disaster.

“These are things we can do prior to a disaster,” said Joanne Potvin, director of the Androscoggin County Hazard Mitigation Plan. “For example, if we know that a road always floods, we have options. Do we raise that road up? Do we widen the culvert around it? There are things we can do.”

Potvin is currently making the rounds of Androscoggin County municipalities. Lisbon councilors adopted the plan in February and it’s on the Auburn City Council agenda next week.

Emergency management officials began working on the plan in 2002 with the Androscoggin Valley Council of Governments.

A committee made up of municipal officials designed the plan, which rates the likelihood of several kinds of natural disasters, from avalanches to windstorms, and the damage they could cause.

The program looks at the likelihood of earthquakes, dam failures, heat waves and hurricanes. It also looks at more common occurrences like floods and severe winter storms, such as 1998 ice storm. That storm caused an estimated $3 million in damage.

In Lewiston, the plan’s top priority is protecting sewer pump stations at Tall Pines and Randall Road from flooding. The plan suggests that work should be completed within one to three years and should cost about $100,000. Potvin said state and federal emergency grants could pay for that work.

For winter storms, the plan suggests encouraging people to trim dead tree limbs and to make sure new buildings are designed to withstand heavy snow loads.

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