Storm brings minor flooding, power outages to Western Maine

RUMFORD — The effects of Hurricane Sandy didn’t bring anything to Oxford County that first responders couldn’t handle, Teresa Glick, deputy director of the Oxford County Emergency Management Agency, said Tuesday in Paris.

Additionally, she said no one called seeking shelter from the storm, which dumped less than 2.5 inches of rain in Bethel, Otisfield and Norway prior to 7:45 a.m., according to a National Weather Service bulletin in Gray.

A weather observer in Andover recorded 1.25 inches by 6:41 a.m.

“It was pretty quiet,” Glick said at 2 p.m. “Our power outages are down to 1,655 now, but we had close to 7,000 at one point. They were scattered across the county.”

She said there were widespread reports of “a lot” of trees down, which firefighters handled, while Central Maine Power Co. crews took care of felled power lines.

Glick said there were no reports of flooding although they’re “keeping close watch” on rivers and streams.

“We’ve been lucky again,” she said.

In the Byron flats on Route 17 about 4 miles north of Coos Canyon, mountain runoff had overloaded a pair of culverts by midafternoon and overflowed the road for a short while in its rush to reach the Swift River.

By 3 p.m., the weather service was continuing its flood warning for the Swift River until late Tuesday evening. Flood stage at Roxbury is 7 feet. At 2 p.m., the stage was 7.3 feet, according to the service warning.

Down in Rumford, two of three baseball fields at Hosmer Field Complex were underwater from the Swift backing up from its confluence with the Androscoggin River, which typically happens in high water events.

The flood warning bulletin stated that the Swift River would continue to rise to near 7.4 feet by late afternoon and begin falling below flood stage during the evening.

Just after 5:15 p.m., a caller to the Sun Journal bureau in Rumford reported that the Swift River had overflowed the Bemis Road off Route 17.

Meanwhile, rain and storms associated with Sandy were heading east of Oxford County on Tuesday, Glick said.

Rumford fire Lt. Keith Bickford said that during the storm, firefighters only had two powerline issues with trees on wires. One was on Route 232; the other on York Street.

Trees and large tree stumps were seen being carried down the Androscoggin River on Tuesday afternoon between River Street and Route 2 in Rumford.

In Norway, Fire Chief Dennis Yates said his department had to clear a large tree that fell onto Route 118, blocking the road and taking down the power lines just after midnight.

They called Oxford Fire Police to stand by and cleared it out. Central Maine Power didn’t fix the wire until Tuesday morning, he said. He said Assistant Fire Chief Jim Tibbetts pointed out another fallen tree on Dunn Road, but traffic was able to get around it so the department left it for the morning.

tkarkos@sunjournal.com

Staff Writer Tony Reaves contributed to this report.

: Rainwater from the effects of Hurricane Sandy overflows a brook’s banks Tuesday afternoon as it rushes through a culvert underneath Route 17 in Roxbury and heads for its confluence with the Swift River beyond.

: A brook threatens to overflow onto Route 17 in Roxbury on Tuesday afternoon while draining through two culverts and eventually into the Swift River.

: A traffic cone alerts drivers on Tuesday afternoon on Route 17 of a potential hazard where a rain-swollen brook overflowed the road in the Byron flats earlier in the day.

: Drivers descending Route 17 on Morrison Hill early Tuesday afternoon in Dixfield caught this view of blue sky peering through an opening amidst swirling rain-laden black clouds.