Roland Abbott slept six hours in three days working as the Emergency Management Agency Director for Wiscasset in the aftermath of ice storm 2008.
His efforts were matched by the nearly 700 volunteers following the winter storm that downed power lines and cracked tree limbs throughout Lincoln County during the early morning hours of Dec. 12.
By late Monday afternoon, Dec. 15, Central Maine Power restored electricity to all accounts in Lincoln County, according to C.M.P. spokesperson John Carroll. Carroll predicted CMP would conclude operations in Alfred, where outages were widespread and Brunswick by Dec. 17.
According to Lincoln County Emergency Management Agency Director Tim Pellerin, 450 first responders, roughly 50 law enforcement personnel and over 100 volunteers turned out for the storm response. On Dec. 15 President Bush authorized emergency federal assistance to support local efforts.
According to Deputy Director of the Maine Emergency Management Agency Ginnie Ricker, the federal support was intended to provide generators and other equipment that might have been needed during storm response efforts.
“We have requested no federal resources, as the situation is under control,” Ricker said Dec. 16.
Pellerin said the county was fortunate in that there were no storm-related deaths.
“It truly represents what we have here in this county,” He added.
From the initial forecast, Pellerin said he expected a band of ice in the central part of the state, which would then turn to rain. The rain never came.
“I could hear the trees breaking in the woods,” Pellerin said as he described the air outside his home 2 a.m. Friday. “I realized then we were in trouble.”
Pellerin declared Lincoln County in a state of emergency at 5:45 a.m. Friday when 12,000 people and 592 roads were reported to be without power. Several fire departments and emergency personnel worked together to respond to the phone calls flooding the Lincoln County Communications (911) center.
“None of this starts until it starts with the communication center,” Pellerin said. “We never lost anyone in the system once.”
Emergency personnel worked with Central Maine Power and with Great Salt Bay Sanitary District manager Mary Bowers to ensure electric power to the water treatment facility, a top priority for the area.
“If we lost power to the Sanitary District, that’s all the water in Damariscotta and Newcastle,” Pellerin said.
The sanitary district was able to keep the facility running using backup generators until C.M.P. fully restored their power at 7:30 p.m. Saturday. Pellerin especially cited Sandy Levesque, the agency’s public relations contact at C.M.P.
“You have got to think of the magnitude of losing the Sanitary District,” Pellerin said. “She has been an absolute godsend. They (C.M.P.) were phenomenal in getting that prioritized.”
In addition to responding to downed trees and a structure fire in Damariscotta on Friday, fire departments opened warming shelters where area residents flocked for warmth and food. Pellerin said that emergency crews had seven warming shelters open starting Friday.
Red Cross Emergency Service Coordinator for the Midcoast chapter Hilary Roberts worked with volunteers to set up a warming shelter at Great Salt Bay Elementary School, Pellerin said.
First responders and firefighters carried wood for the elderly, gassed up generators, started up wood stoves and went around their respective areas conducting welfare checks to make sure residents were surviving the cold.
“We had 12 people including two babies Saturday night,” Roland Abbott said of the emergency shelter at the Wiscasset Community Center, adding that more people arrived on Sunday to get out of the cold.
The Center had about 100 people stop by to use the facilities, get warm, get some food and take a shower, according to Pellerin. Overall, an estimated 450 people utilized the facilities at two overnight shelters and seven warming shelters, according to the L.C.E.M.A.
People who didn’t want to leave their pets behind could take them to the Center. There were also other locations for people with pets. The Community Animal Rescue Team, was headed by Director Betsy Pratt and Deputy Director Dave Pratt during this community effort. Pratt said the Boothbay and Newcastle fire departments both housed pets, as well as the Wiscasset Community Center. She said the L.C.A.S. also offered their support in supplies and assistance.
Kim Kaiser, Deputy Director for L.C.E.M.A. said people who called the communications center were upset and cold and tired. One man called because he couldn’t bring his dog to a particular shelter. Kaiser said that she connected the man with someone at the animal shelter who helped the man find a place to go. The man went from sounding very irritable, tired and frustrated to sounding reassured and a little more relaxed. Kaiser surmised the man relaxed once he had heard a solution to his situation from a real person on the other end of the telephone line.
“It’s been a long weekend,” Pellerin said, adding that the Communication center had received thousands of phone calls.
Many of the people who work as firefighters, first responders, emergency medical technicians, law enforcement and other emergency workers went without much sleep over the weekend.
“It was a great county-wide effort,” Pellerin said. “Needless to say, we are all tired. It was neighbors helping neighbors and the beauty is the system works.”