A version of this story first appeared in the Morning Update newsletter. Sign up here to receive the Morning Update and other BDN newsletters directly in your inbox.
Happy Tuesday.
We hope you enjoyed that stretch of cool temps over the past several days, because the pendulum is swinging back into the 80s through at least the weekend for central and eastern Maine.
After isolated morning showers today, there is no drought-busting rain in sight, according to the National Weather Service. That’s bad news for midcoast Maine, which has entered a severe drought. Mirror Lake, which serves as the primary water source for the Camden-Rockland area, just saw its fourth driest month since record-keeping began in 1913. Most of Penobscot County remains in a moderate drought, while most of the rest of the state, save the western mountains, is abnormally dry.
That could be bad news for farmers, particularly Maine’s blueberry growers, who have been trying to recover after a devastating season last year. As bad as it might be, it could be worse. Just look to Europe, where a roasting drought is killing crops, draining rivers and revealing centuries-old hunger stones.
What we know about the Old Town bridge collapse
Five days after the catastrophic failure of a bridge being built to carry Stillwater Avenue over the eponymous river, little is known about what caused it or when the public will learn the full scope of what happened.
We do know some of the backstory, including that the girders in the bridge were made with a fairly new composite technology developed at the University of Maine and licensed to a company that has described it as a “miracle material.”
For now, the weak link remains unknown. The Maine Department of Transportation is investigating the collapse, and every company or institution that had a hand in the doomed bridge is staying tight-lipped.
Latest Stories
- Uniquely named festival continues Maine roots music tradition in Aroostook
- A renovated Colonial-style Rockport farmhouse built on land with storied past selling for $785K
- $800K home tops list of Bangor property sales, July 19-25
- $13.4M job to close troubled Bucksport landfill starts years after state order
- A few of the roughly 150 shipwrecks in the waters around Acadia National Park
- Bangor’s council holds firm on deal for homeless housing development
- Paul LePage aims to serve in Congress as long as ‘health and sanity’ allow
- Guilford man arrested in connection with deadly assault
- Maine man accused of killing infant daughter won’t have bail lowered, judge rules
From the Opinion Page
“Maybe they do not have reliable transportation. Maybe they are dealing with unstable housing, depression, family problems, withdrawal, or a work schedule they cannot control.”
Opinion: Addiction treatment must be flexible and fit the person