For nearly two days after Hurricane Irene, access to Somerville was limited to one route in or out: Rt. 105/206 via Rt. 17. All other roads in and out of northern Somerville were closed due to downed power lines.
Although town emergency crews had cleared brush and downed limbs from the roads within 18 hours of the storm, to get the roads open they were at the mercy of Central Maine Power’s strained schedule.
At 2:30 p.m. on Aug. 29, at the intersection of Rt. 105 and Turner Ridge and Somerville roads, a steady stream of vehicles attempted to use all three of the closed roads, only to be turned around.
Somerville Fire Chief Mike Dostie stood at the intersection, directing traffic and discussing the situation.
“Just about every road” in Somerville is closed, Dostie said at the time. About 90 percent of the town lost power Sunday morning, and early Monday they lost phone service, he said.
Dostie emphasized that CMP worked closely with the town; CMP spokesman Gail Rice said around noon on Monday the company is doing their best to restore power and road access, but has to focus on more populous areas first. “You’ve got to work from the core out,” she said, “then work on the large primary lines, then the critical facilities, hospitals, fire and police.”
Somerville, along with the other northern Lincoln County towns of Jefferson and Whitefield, appear to have been the hardest hit in Lincoln County. Somerville has limited access roads and a small population, so when lines go down, things shut down quickly, and stay down.
“It seems like we really got it,” Dostie said. “Things started to get rough Sunday morning, and they just got worse from there.”
Route 105 re-opened Monday night and on Tuesday afternoon about 50 percent of homes had power, Dostie said. At around 4 p.m. on Tuesday, Dostie said electricity crews were actively working to open Turner Ridge and Somerville roads, and restore power to residents’ home.
Dostie praised the crewmembers, who he said are from New Brunswick, brought in to assist CMP with the 275,000 outages reported as a result of Hurricane (then Tropical Storm) Irene.
The Canadian crew “worked through their dinner,” Dostie said. “Then they worked into the night, until their supervisor told them they had to go home.”
Dostie said Somerville plans to find a way to thank the workers after things settle down.
Meanwhile, a team of four Somerville emergency responders – Dostie, Martha Staples, Ray Kimball and Tim Dostie – worked to ensure residents had water, supplies and any help they needed.
“We’re bringing water around to all the homes,” Dostie said. “We’re bringing gas for generators to elderly residents, and we’ve serviced a few generators.”
Throughout storm recovery, Somerville emergency responders have worked to ensure that elderly residents are taken care of, particularly with the loss of phone services and limited road access, Dostie said.
