Scott Dutcher looked for representatives from the Red Cross and FEMA. He hoped to get aid after a powerful storm flooded his Bethel home. Rose Lincoln/Bethel Citizen
BETHEL — All was quiet Dec. 31, at the 12 homes on Jonathan Clark Road off West Bethel Road.
Bethel Firefighters rescued nine people from the mobile home park during the storm that started Dec. 18. The road runs alongside a narrow tributary that flows into the Androscoggin River. It had overflowed displacing families.
Scott Dutcher stood in his his doorway, looking for Red Cross and Federal Emergency Management Agency representatives. He said he had called them three times, repeating the same information each time.
One side of Dutcher’s trailer had been flooded with 5 inches of rain. He said he hopes the service agencies will replace his wet mattresses, chair and other belongings. He had to pay for lodging during the flood and hopes to be reimbursed for that, too.
Dutcher said he thinks his floors are salvageable. While he had to dry and relay the flooring he had recently installed, he thought he had fared better than other trailer park residents, who lost vehicles in addition to incurring home damage.
He said his landlord will need to reattach his exterior stairs to the trailer. They floated away and are now on a neighbor’s lawn.
Butcher Burger remains closed Dec. 31 following flooding. Rose Lincoln/Bethel Citizen
Dancers
Troy Jordan, of Woodstock, was running two oversized dehumidifiers and a kerosene heater at his wife Maryanne’s business, “Toe Tappin’ Jazz,” on Saturday.
The popular dance studio at the corner of Main and Cross Streets in Bethel had filled with 47 inches of water during the flood. Props and sets from 25 years of shows were ruined. The edges of the dance mats were curled and mirrors had fallen and smashed. They had to rip out the walls to the height of the flood.
“It is heartening to see the amount of support that we have gotten from community members,” said Jordan. Three days earlier, 25 former dancers, parents, and family members, came to help. They ripped out saturated floors, walls and insulation.
Jordan said immediately following the disaster, Principal Tanya Arsenault, called to offer space at Crescent Park School for dance classes.
While renovations continue, dance classes will start this week at CPS.
The landlord of three West Bethel Road apartments said he felt bad for his tenants who had lost their belongings after a powerful storm flooded business and homes Dec. 18-20. Rose Lincoln/Bethel Citizen
Family aid
Visible through the exposed studs in the wall at Toe Tappin’ Jazz, a large fan is whirring continuously inside Kowloon Village.
The Chinese Restaurant and Bar was flooded in the storm, too.
Sue Chen wearing work clothes and gloves was still cleaning the mess. Several large rolls of new insulation lay on the floor, ready to replace the ruined material.
Chen’s husband, Simon, her mother, father, and sister-in-law all worked together to place the restaurant’s booths on tables as the water began to fill the space. They were able to save the booths, just not the tables, said Chen, who couldn’t say for certain when they would reopen.
Philbrook
With one-third of her sales in the month of December, Philbrook Place owner, Sara Hemeon said she was ready to hand out flashlights to customers if power hadn’t come on by Thursday, Dec. 21, day four of the storm.
The gift and clothing shop on Main Street in Bethel hadn’t flooded, but Hemeon said she was rethinking her plan going forward. She will likely buy a propane generator, she said.
Since 2007, “we have never lost power for more than a couple of hours on Main Street … I know we need to be better prepared, because this will not be the last time,” she said.
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