{"id":5806,"date":"2019-03-15T09:51:13","date_gmt":"2019-03-15T13:51:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/?p=5806"},"modified":"2025-08-24T10:57:28","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T14:57:28","slug":"old-farmers-almanac-snowfall-and-floodwaters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/2019\/03\/15\/old-farmers-almanac-snowfall-and-floodwaters\/","title":{"rendered":"Old Farmer\u2019s Almanac, Snowfall and Floodwaters"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Looking down into the flooded basement storage area.<\/p><\/div>\n

On August 26, 2018, the \u201cOld Farmer\u2019s Almanac\u201d predicted \u201carctic air, blustery, bitter winds, sharp drops in temperatures, and widespread snow showers and squalls\u201d for winter 2018-19. \u00a0\u201cAbove-normal snowfall is predicted for the Great Lakes states, Midwest, and central and northern New England.\u201d Northern Maine is doing its part to validate the \u201cOld Farmer\u2019s Almanac\u2019\u201ds predictions this winter.<\/p>\n

The National Weather Service in Caribou, @NWSCaribou, tweeted on Feb. 26 that the total snowfall in Caribou was 147 inches. That is 67 inches above the average snowfall. Winter 2007-08 holds the record with 197.8 inches of snowfall.<\/p>\n

Snowfall shouldn\u2019t be confused with the amount of snow on the ground. The NWS calls this \u201cobserved snow depths.\u201d The NWS reported in its Winter\/Spring Flood Potential Outlook that snow depths were above normal on Feb. 21. Snow depths across northern and northwest Maine range from 35-45 inches. The Flood Potential Outlook also reported that the \u201csnow water equivalent,\u201d the \u201csoil moisture\u201d and the \u201cgroundwater levels\u201d are above normal. This information is used to predict the likelihood and severity of flooding.<\/p>\n

This past December, the ice on many rivers in northern Maine let go and created ice jams that are still locked in place. One ice jam on the Aroostook River is approximately 7 miles long. It stretches from Washburn to Crouseville. Another ice jam on Wallagrass Stream has closed part of ITS 73A. Snowmobilers must reroute onto Aroostook Road (Route 11) in Wallagrass. The NWS warns that the flood potential for both open water and ice jam flooding is above normal for the region.<\/p>\n

Spring floods are the talk of the town in Fort Kent. Sue Tardie, an administrative specialist at the University of Maine at Fort Kent, said, \u201cIt was the first thing discussed at last night\u2019s Rotary meeting.\u201d Tardie tells about how the university learned from the 2008 flood. Before the flood, the basement of Fox Auditorium and Cyr Hall was used as storage. Now items stored there can withstand water. Items that can\u2019t get wet are stored on higher ground.<\/p>\n

During the flood, the basements filled with water. Facility employees and volunteers worked to salvage as much as they could. According to Scott Voisine, Tamara Mitchell performed triage during the removal. She was able to identify items, boxes and files that were of utmost importance and have those removed first.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt makes people think more preventative now.\u201d Tardie said, \u201cIt\u2019s not something someone forgets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Voisine is currently the dean of community education. In the spring of 2008, he was the director of student affairs. He vividly remembers the middle-of-the-night phone call asking him to report to the campus. The university\u2019s president and vice-presidents were unavailable, so Voisine was incident commander for the first 20 hours of the emergency. On April 30, the Fish River crested at 13.93 feet and the St. John River crested at 30.14 feet. Local authorities asked Voisine to evacuate the dorms. The students were not in danger from the flood. The dorms were creating a burden on the sewer system. \u00a0Voisine called in the residential life staff. Together they made a plan to alert the students and evacuate the dorms.<\/p>\n

Voisine called Christine Corsello and William Engler, his counterparts at the University of Maine at Presque Isle and Northern Maine Community College. Voisine didn\u2019t know how many students would need housing or for how long. With emotion creeping into his voice, Voisine said, \u201cThey told me \u2018get them here and we will handle it. We will be ready.\u2019 And they were.\u201d The student activities directors from both campuses worked together to provide things for the students to do. Students received movie tickets and rides to the mall. Presque Isle cared for Fort Kent\u2019s students for five days.<\/p>\n

Brian Shaefer is the new director of facility management at UMFK. He takes the threat of flooding seriously. Shaefer met with the Fort Kent Ice Out Planning Committee on Feb. 14. Shaefer said, \u201cThere were at least 30 members from all across the spectrum.\u201d \u00a0Law enforcement, fire department, waste disposal, state forestry, warden service, EMS, NOAA, city officials and UMFK staff work together to prepare the St. John Valley for flood season. Shaefer and the facilities staff at UMFK are reminding employees to remove items from low-lying storage until the flood season is over. They also inspect those areas multiple times a day during the flood season. Since the 2008 flood, a new pumping system was installed. It allows for \u201cat least 50 percent more pumping capability than was ever needed in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the most memorable things about the \u201cMay Day Flood\u201d is the way the community came together. Townsfolk with heavy equipment built a berm to divert water from Route 1. A local man who owned a gravel pit donated the materials for the berm. SAD 27 provided buses to transport the students to Presque Isle. UMFK provided food and a place to rest to first responders and volunteers. \u00a0The local grocery stores donated bottled water. When the flood waters separated St. Francis and Allagash from Fort Kent, a helicopter flew in food, medicine and supplies. Local volunteers used their own vehicles to distribute the supplies to those in need.<\/p>\n

The \u201cOld Farmer\u2019s Almanac\u201d predicts, \u201cThe snowiest periods will be in early January, early to mid-February, mid-March and early April. April and May will be rainier than normal.\u201d \u00a0Fort Kent and the St. John Valley, as well as the campuses of northern Aroostook County,\u00a0may have a chance to come together again this spring.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On August 26, 2018, the \u201cOld Farmer\u2019s Almanac\u201d predicted \u201carctic air, blustery, bitter winds, sharp drops in temperatures, and widespread snow showers and squalls\u201d for winter 2018-19. \u00a0\u201cAbove-normal snowfall is predicted for the Great Lakes states, Midwest, and central and northern New England.\u201d Northern Maine is doing its part to validate the \u201cOld Farmer\u2019s Almanac\u2019\u201ds […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":234,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7381],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archives","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/234"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5806"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5806\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8501,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5806\/revisions\/8501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}