Bangor assesses citywide storm damage

BANGOR, Maine (WABI) - While the coast has been the hardest hit by Wednesday’s weather, Bangor is addressing storm-related damages across the city.

Public works, police, and service crews were out in Bangor to assess and respond to damage from Tuesday night into Wednesday morning.

“So, we brought everybody in at 11 o’clock last night. We have about 40 people on right now, and they’re really focusing on snow to start, with trying to push the snow back, make sure that when the rain started we had the drains open. Unfortunately, we did not have them all open. We saw a lot of flooding this morning,” describes Aaron Huotari, City of Bangor Public Works director. “We’re still seeing wind surging water up the Penobscot, which is pushing the canal high.”

As for downed trees on powerlines, Huotari says: “We’ve been fortunate. There weren’t a lot of trees. We had one big tree go down on Kenduskeag near Harlow Street and brought down about four poles along with it.”

One victim of a fallen tree is Bangor resident Trish Clark.

“It wasn’t really like a crack or anything as you might expect from a tree. It was more of a rushing of wind,” Clark describes. “Pretty surprising for a tree this large. It came down and my poor daughter’s vehicle took a hit, so we’re processing through that. My tree has gotten into the line, so I immediately called Versant.”

Wednesday’s storm lies between December’s major rain and windstorm and upcoming similar conditions on Saturday. Huotari says Bangor is prepped.

“So, we’ll probably have crews in late Friday night or early Saturday morning to move that snow off the streets,” explains Huotari. “The last one, we saw a lot of weakened trees and expected a lot of those to come down. It did not happen, and we’re very happy about that.”

He says the best way for the public to help crews is to respect parking bans.

“One thing I noticed driving around early this morning, a lot of vehicles still parked in the street and caused us a lot of extra work, moving around those vehicles,” he says. “Fortunately, the snow has melted so they didn’t leave big piles, but we do have a parking ban every night outside the downtown district from midnight to 6 a.m. Vehicles are not supposed to be parked on the street, and if they can get out off the streets, especially for that snowstorm on Saturday, it would be a huge help to us.”