LEWISTON – By Maine standards, the 3 inches of snow that fell across the state was very typical for a January storm. The morning and early afternoon snow whitened up the landscape and slicked roads in some places.
By 4 p.m., it was over. Road crews continued working to clear the streets and to drop sand where necessary. Police cleared away from the last of the afternoon crashes and prepared for the early evening commute.
“It was just a typical, little snowstorm,” said Art Lester of the National Weather Service in Gray. “It was nothing extraordinary at all.”
In the Twin Cities, police responded to a combined total of 30 car wrecks. Just about all of them resulted in minor property damage. In three, drivers or passengers were examined for complaints of pain, police said.
Just before 2 p.m. on Park Avenue in Auburn, a vehicle driven by Betsy R. Swan, 22, of Wales, slid out of control and struck a parked vehicle owned by Phillip Baril, 18, of Mechanic Falls. At the time, Baril was out of his vehicle to assist another driver who had slid into a ditch. Combined damage to Swan’s 1994 Nissan and Baril’s 1997 Dodge was estimated at $5,000.
It was the same across the tri-county area, with crashes reported just about everywhere and cars and trucks sliding off roads. In Androscoggin County, a sheriff’s official said there were scattered fender benders but “nothing out of the ordinary.”
By nightfall, plow crews were still out cleaning up after the storm. In Lewiston, Aaron Scalia, road supervisor with the Public Works Department, said they began dropping sand on trouble zones at about 7 a.m.
By noon, crews were trying to catch up as the storm peaked and the snow began falling at its heaviest. They continued plowing until after dark, both roads and sidewalks where needed.
Most areas in Western Maine saw three inches of snow fall. The highest amount was in Wilton where five inches was recorded, according to the National Weather Service.
Lester said a few flakes might fall on Friday, but again, he was not forecasting anything out of the ordinary for January in Maine.
“It looks like it will be just some flurries,” Lester said. “It doesn’t look like there will be anything by way of accumulation.”
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