Storm’s impact lingers in County Blowing, drifting snow blocks highways

HOULTON – Even after the snow stopped falling Monday morning, plow crews still had their hands full in several parts of central Aroostook County, where blowing snow caused drifts that blocked several rural roads for hours.

Around 1 p.m. Monday, a state police dispatcher at Houlton reported that Route 164 from Caribou to Washburn was blocked on the Caribou end. The Centerline Road in Presque Isle also was blocked.

Marshall Road, Conant Road, Bryant Pond Road, Center Limestone Road and Currier Road, all in Fort Fairfield, also were reported impassable.

Parts of Route 1 between Caribou and Presque Isle, Route 11 and Route 161 also were being plagued by problems with blowing and drifting snow.

“Anyone who’s out there should use a lot of caution,” the dispatcher.

The Houlton area got 14 inches of snow, while the Patten area got 17 inches.

Most of the roads that were obstructed pass through areas of potato fields where there were no natural barriers to keep the snow from drifting across the roads after they were plowed.

Fort Fairfield Town Manager Dan Foster learned that firsthand late Sunday night when his intended three-hour trip in one of the town’s snowplows turned into a misadventure that ended with Foster having to walk home.

It was about 8 p.m. Sunday when Foster decided he wanted to go out with a plow operator “just to see how things were going,” Foster recalled Monday in a telephone interview from his home in Fort Fairfield.

About 9 p.m., he headed out with plow operator Carl Wilcox, whose regular plow run normally lasts three to 31/2 hours.

“We got struck twice, and I was the one who had to shovel,” Foster said with a laugh, adding that plows were getting stuck all night “right in the middle of the road.”

When they finally did get going, the plow was about 300 yards from Foster’s home on Forest Avenue, “and it just died,” Foster recalled.

“I said, ‘Carl, buddy, it’s been great, but I’m outta here,”‘ Foster said, adding that he proceeded to walk the rest of the way home.

“I was one tired puppy when I got into the house,” around 3:15 a.m. Monday, he said.

“I have an awful lot of respect for those guys,” Foster said of the town’s Public Works Department employees. “They’re out all night drinking tons of coffee.

“They were up at 5 a.m. [Sunday] and they still haven’t gone home,” he said.