Bangor - Hurricane Bill brought some very high surf to our coastline, but it has not been since 1991 that a hurricane made landfall in Maine. Now with Earl churning in the tropics and targeting our area, are we going to be prepared?

According to the Maine Emergency Management Agency (MEMA), “Yes we are going to be prepared. We have been working hard, specifically on a hurricane, but we never take anything for granted.”

Hurricane Bill was well away from the Maine coast last year, but was still able to kick up very high surf and unfortunately dragged away seven victims. And with calm waters, the recent tranquil weather, you would not think that a hurricane would be coming. The coast is the main threat. MEMA is going to be focusing on the coastal communities so boats can stay afloat.

But what about the areas inland that don’t see surge, but only rain? John Peckenam, Senior Research Scientist at the University of Maine explains, “We would see the little streams fill up, but the larger rivers like the Penobscot would take many hours, even days to fill up after a dose of heavy rain.”

Despite the holiday weekend right around the corner, the timing of this storm could not have been more perfect to minimize damage. Dr. Joseph Kelly, Professor of Marine Geology explains, “the tides will actually be very small, if the storm came next week, the tide would be three feet higher, and could have caused more substantial damage to the coastal communities.”


We are just a couple of days away from Earl’s appearance, and all of the preparations have are in play, its all just a waiting game right now.

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