Snowpack, weather raise flood concerns

AUGUSTA – All the ingredients are in place for a flood if Maine receives near-normal rain and a predicted warm-up in temperatures next week, according to a weather specialist.

Hendricus Lulofs, warning coordination meteorologist with the National Weather Service bureau in Caribou, said Wednesday that he was pretty confident Maine would get the warmer weather, but he isn’t sure at the moment about the rainfall.

“We’re not saying a flood is imminent, but the threat is higher than in more recent years,” Lulofs said.

A storm coming out of the Gulf of Mexico should affect the Gulf of Maine beginning Friday, bringing mixed precipitation into the Bangor region. Rain should continue late Friday evening and into Saturday, according to an NWS meteorologist in Caribou.

Lulofs on Wednesday joined Lynette Miller, a senior planner at the Maine Emergency Management Agency, and other members of the River Flow Advisory Commission in Augusta to discuss the factors related to flood potential across the state.

The River Flow Advisory Commission, comprising state, federal and industry representatives with an interest in hydrologic issues, first met two weeks ago when the flood potential was above normal, Miller said Wednesday. Because the potential for a flood has escalated since then, the need for another meeting was evident.

The meeting was an opportunity for all the individuals interested in stream and river flows and ice to discuss possible concerns and problems, the MEMA official said.

The large amount of snowpack is a concern, according to Miller. Because the snowpack is a risk factor, “the flood potential is much above normal,” she said. State officials are eyeing the conditions of the Androscoggin, Kennebec and Piscataquis rivers, Miller said.

Lulofs said the snowpack Down East has the equivalent of 5 to 6 inches of water, while the snowpack in northern Maine has 8 to 10 inches of water. The western part of the state has more than a foot of water in the snowpack, he said.

Officials rely on some devices that are in place to determine flood factors, including stream and river flow gauges. Other detection devices – ice-monitoring cameras – were installed earlier this month by the U.S. Geological Survey on buildings overlooking the Kennebec and Piscataquis rivers. Information from the cameras is fed directly to the World Wide Web. The images provided by the cameras are updated every 10 minutes and displayed on the agency’s Web site at http://me.water.usgs.gov.

Miller said she did not want to create panic but suggested that now is the time for people who live or operate businesses along bodies of water to review their evacuation plans.

These individuals should address their own vulnerability, she said.