A section of High Street near the Veterans’ Home in Paris washed out due to heavy rain Sunday.WGME photo
PARIS — Despite torrential downpours Sunday and early reports of several washed-out roads, Oxford County escaped the flooding with just pockets of damage throughout the county.
Deputy Director Cammie Sprague of Oxford County Emergency Management Agency said Oxford County did not have significant damage, according to the information that the agency had Monday afternoon.
The Oxford County Regional Communication Center said it was only aware of two roads in the entire county Tuesday that were currently closed — High Street in Paris and Bear Pond Road in Buckfield. All other roads were passable.
Bear Pond Road, however, was closed before Sunday’s storm and suffered no new damage, said Town Manager Cameron Hinkley.
“Public Works is currently replacing the Drew Brook Crossing with a concrete box bridge/culvert,” Hinkley said. He added that with materials delivered last week, the road is expected to be closed for seven-to-10 days.
High Street in Paris did suffer storm damage. The road is expected to remain closed until sometime next week, said Communications Director Paul Merrill at the Maine Department of Transportation. Workers need to replace a four-foot culvert that failed during the storm. The washout is located just beyond the Veterans’ Home.
That was the only state road that had to close for damage from Sunday’s storm, Merrill said.
Fire Chief Mark Blaquiere said with the exception of High Street, Paris suffered “very minimal damage.” An early report of a washout on Upper Swallow Road turned out to be some minor shoulder damage.
Roads that had temporarily closed Sunday in Norway were all open to traffic Monday, interim Town Manager Bradley Plante said. He added that a couple of the town roads had only one lane open.
Plante credited his road crew, led by Steve Powers, for working Sunday afternoon, evening and all day Monday to make sure the roads were passable, which was priority. He added that there were some small culverts, especially under driveways, that had failed and needed to be replaced. Although some would likely only have gravel as a temporary fix, Plante anticipated that every driveway could be used Monday.
He also praised his fire department for “assisting our crews in helping to direct traffic and setting up cones.”
Plante added that with all the rain Sunday, Lake Pennesseewassee was nearing flood stage. Officials removed one of the boards at the dam to help lower the water level. The staff was still monitoring the situation Monday.
Bethel Town Manager Natalie Andrews said the damage in her town was limited to some small washouts to shoulders along roadways and some damage to driveways. What was so frustrating, Andrews said, was much of the damage was to areas the road crews had repaired earlier in the year, forcing crews to redo the work, which adds to the town’s labor costs.
Andrews said she was already working on the paperwork for Oxford County EMA on cost estimates to determine if the county will qualify for federal disaster funds.
Several smaller towns in the county suffered minor flooding issues Sunday, but those were mostly resolved by Monday.
Comments are not available on this story.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
