By Doug Fletcher,Staff Writer

As hurricanes batter the Deep South, officials in Maine are preparing for another type of disaster, one brought on by winter’s cold and soaring energy prices.

The fear is that some people might not be able to afford to heat their homes this winter.

Already, people from the governor’s office, the state housing authority, and the Maine Emergency Management Agency have met to discuss the possibilities.

Beth Nagusky, director of the Maine Office of Energy Independence and Security, said that the first line of defense likely will be to get help from families.

Churches, social service agencies, towns and the American Red Cross come next. Churches and towns in particular could provide some shelter, said Lynette Miller, MEMA’s public information officer.

“I think it is a concern,” Miller said of rising energy prices. “We seem to be riding such a fine line.”

That line gets finer as prices rise.

Jo-Ann Choate, Maine’s Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program coordinator, said the average benefit available to the state’s neediest people is $430. With No. 2 heating oil retailing at $2.54 per gallon, the LIHEAP funds would purchase 189 gallons, far from even a single 270-gallon tank of fuel.

“That’s not even a month’s supply,” Choate said.

She said Maine is seeking additional LIHEAP funds from the federal government, but there is no assurance of getting the money. Last year, the state got a total of $24 million, including a $6 million supplement because of high oil prices and an extremely cold winter.

Choate expects Congress to approve a LIHEAP budget for 2005-06 sometime next month.

Next month is also when eligible people can apply to community action programs for heating assistance. Eligibility has been upped to 150 percent of the federal poverty level, meaning more people ought to qualify for assistance this year.

People on Social Security can apply now through the Maine State Housing Authority, Choate said.

MSHA spokesman Dan Simpson said the agency has identified about 200 vacant apartments around Maine that might be available for use in the event of a home heating emergency. The apartments were inventoried as part of the state’s response to meeting the needs of Hurricane Katrina evacuees.

MEMA’s Miller said the state would look to local agencies and the Red Cross if it is necessary to open shelters to house people unable to heat their homes.

Local meeting set

That doesn’t seem to be a top priority right now, however, she noted. It’s possible that there could be a need for a church hall or town office building meeting room to be opened to give people a place to go to warm up and get a hot beverage, she said.

Doug Hoyt, director of the United Valley Chapter of the American Red Cross, said that agency, representatives of the Androscoggin Valley United Way, the city of Lewiston and other social service groups plan to meet Oct. 14 “to try to put our arms around the foreseeable problem” of a home heating crisis.

One concern, he said, is that people might turn to alternative means to heat their homes, but those means could result in fires. That in turn would represent a disaster requiring housing and other assistance from the Red Cross.

Hoping to head off a heating crisis, Gov. John Baldacci on Wednesday announced the second year of the state’s Keep ME Warm program, through which volunteers work to insulate the homes of needy people.

Still, “We all need to watch out for each other and our neighbors,” said MEMA’s Miller.

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