ALFRED, Maine — Gov. Janet Mills has requested that President Joe Biden issue a major disaster declaration to help Cumberland and York counties recover from the April snow and windstorm that resulted in significant damages across southern Maine.
Mills in a May 2 letter to the president, wrote that costs resulting from the April 3-4 storm – including debris removal, damage to roads and bridges, and emergency protective measures – are expected to exceed $3.5 million in the two counties.
York County Emergency Management Agency Director Art Cleaves estimated close to $2 million in damage within the county, much of it in tree debris.
In Waterboro alone, a community of 8,100 people west of the Maine Turnpike, Town Manager Matt Bors – also the municipality’s fire chief – estimated around $228,000 in costs to clean up road debris.
“Every road had trees down, every road had debris,” said Bors. “It would take months to clean up. We reached out to a contractor to help us.”
It was a scenario similar in many municipalities across York County following the storms – trees on power lines, tree limbs, and other debris on the roadways. In the days and weeks that have followed, tree crews have been out in many locales, removing the debris.
Cleaves said at least five York County municipalities had more than $150,000 in costs associated with tree damage and emergency protective measures that had to be taken during the storm, with first responders out to assure safety.
The heavy wet snow that damaged much of the electrical grid in York County came in silently, arriving just after 5 p.m. April 3 as a light mix of rain and snow - and then got worse. As much as 21 inches of heavy wet snow fell in some inland locales, lesser amounts at the coast.
More than 90,000 of the 129,000 Central Maine Power Company customers in York County were without electricity at the storm’s peak; by April 9, most were reconnected.
Out-of-state power crews were sheltered in schools and fire stations across the county because of a lack of available hotel rooms.
The requests submitted by the governor are for FEMA’s Public Assistance Program, which provides supplemental grants so communities can quickly respond to and recover from major disasters or emergencies, and the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, which provides funding so governments can develop hazard mitigation plans and rebuild in a way that reduces, or mitigates, future disaster losses in their communities.
This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: York County reports $2M in damage following April nor'easter
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