LEWISTON — Help is starting to pour in to assist the L&A Veterans Council to restore Veterans Memorial Park, which sustained severe damage earlier this week when the Androscoggin River reached major flood stage and overflowed onto the popular park below the falls along Main Street.

The swift current toppled some of the monuments and knocked over and broke some of the memorial benches. The retaining wall that separates the park from the river is mostly gone.

Some of the military equipment and most of the pedestals they sit on will require repairs. Debris covers a large section of the park near the monuments, which contain the names of local veterans.

But as far as L&A Veterans Council Chairman Jerry DeWitt is concerned, it could have been so much worse.

“I’m more optimistic than I was earlier yesterday when everything was under water,” DeWitt said after assessing the damage Thursday morning.

Most important, DeWitt said, all of the 34 granite memorial stones with names of local veterans who served in every military conflict since the Revolutionary War are accounted for. While some are tipped over, they appear in good shape with the exception of a few scratches.

The World War II-era jeep did not topple into the water, as feared. DeWitt said they would remove the jeep from its tilted pedestal and move it to higher ground near the park’s Vietnam-era airplane to allow for repairs to the grounds and the wall.

The naval gun near the jeep was damaged and will also get moved to higher ground for repairs, as well as the platform it sits on. The retaining wall was mostly swept away by the floodwaters and the fierce current of the Androscoggin as it roared over the rocky falls.

“The city is going to have to rebuild that lower wall,” DeWitt said. “That should cost at least $100,000.”

As of early Thursday afternoon, DeWitt said he is still trying to reach officials at Lewiston Public Works to review the damage and come up with a plan to repair the grounds.

Some of the memorial benches are down the embankment and in the water. A few are broken, DeWitt said, but a surprising number of them have remained intact.

DeWitt said he was delighted when he located the Vietnam War Veterans Memorial in the river lying face up in the water. He noticed a chunk on the top of the stone was broken off, but DeWitt said that was “no big deal.”

He is meeting Friday morning with representatives of Collette Monuments of Lewiston to access the damage and develop a plan to restore the benches and pick up and reset the memorial markers.

Easy Rental of Lewiston will donate equipment to help lift and move the damaged military hardware, stones and benches.

While DeWitt is hopeful that the city will receive relief funds to help pay for some of the repairs, the council is accepting donations, DeWitt said. They may be mailed to L&A Veterans Council, PO Box 2316, Lewiston, ME 04240.

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