ALLAGASH, Maine — Spring has officially arrived in Allagash. The St. John River began running during the early morning hours of April 4, carrying massive chunks of winter ice downstream.
Some minor flooding resulted from the ice out, as river water overflowed onto Route 161 near the Allagash and St. Francis town line.
Fearing buses would not get through from Fort Kent and back safely, Maine School Administrative District 27 officials canceled school for the day for Allagash students.
However, no road was officially closed to the public because of flooding on Monday, according to Bob Watson, Maine Department of Transportation regional manager.
Watson said midday on Monday that he was aware of the flooding in Allagash, but that Route 161 was not technically closed to the public and that at last report “the water was going down really slowly.”
The road was reduced to one lane and Watson advised drivers to exercise caution when encountering any water-covered roadways.
“We try to encourage people not to drive through running water, especially if the water’s got any current to it. It’s generally not safe to drive through running water. You can never know quite how deep it is and you don’t know whether a portion of the road is washed away. That’s the biggest worry … you don’t know what’s going on underneath the water,” he said.
Flooding does not appear to be an issue this year in Fort Kent, according to Town Manager Don Guimond.
Guimond said the water level of the St. John River in Fort Kent measured 13.2 feet as of Monday morning. While it rose considerably from the 8.6-foot level it was at on Friday, April 1, the river still would have to rise more than 9 feet to get to flood stage, which is 22.5 feet.
Guimond pointed out that when the town of Fort Kent experienced a major flood in 2008, the St. John crested at 27.74 feet.
Though he does not anticipate any flooding in Fort Kent at this point, Guimond said he and other town officials were keeping an eye on the water to be safe.
“It doesn’t mean you don’t worry about it. With [ice] jamming, things can change rather dramatically, so you have to pay attention,” he said. “Right now it doesn’t appear it is going to be an issue. Cold weather helps as well.”
The water level of the St. John River was higher at the Dickey gauge in Allagash Sunday night than it was in Fort Kent. The river went up from 14 feet at 7 a.m. Sunday morning to 23 feet by 9:15 that night. About an hour and a half later, however, the water level had dropped back down to 15.1 feet.
“That’s what ice does,” Guimond said in reference to ice jamming up on the river and causing water to back up and flood areas. By late Monday morning, he said the water level had dropped down to 10.8 feet at the Dickey gauge.
“When you live in a community that is subject to flooding, you kind of use all the tools that are available to you to try to figure out what’s going on,” he said. “The best tool is people — folks that we talk to from time to time that sort of know the river.”
Watson of the DOT recommended that spectators keep at a reasonable distance when watching natural phenomena, such as ice flowing down river.
“Things can change quickly,” in such instances, from a seemingly safe situation to a dangerous one, he said.
Finally, Watson asked that people who encounter running water on roads contact public officials to alert them to the situation.
“Don’t assume that the appropriate people already know.”
The National Weather Service office in Caribou was not forecasting any more rain or snow in the area until late Wednesday night or Thursday, but a hazardous weather outlook was issued for parts of northern, eastern and central Maine for later in the week.
“Heavy rain Thursday into Thursday night may result in a risk of flooding into Friday, especially across the north where ice remains on some rivers and melting snow will provide additional runoff,” the outlook states.
Southern and western parts of the state were getting snow Monday morning, with up to 3 inches forecast in York County and an inch or less expected from Portland north and east.