AUGUSTA – A drought persists while flooding threatens in Maine. What sounded like a mixed message was delivered Thursday by state and federal officials, who say the key to avoiding problems is the timing of rain.

“Don’t get it all at once, and not too quickly,” said Art Cleaves, director of the Maine Emergency Management Agency and co-chairman of the River Flow Advisory Commission. A potential for flooding still exists in Maine, especially in the north along the St. John, Aroostook and Piscataquis rivers, where the harsh winter left unusually thick ice, said Cleaves.

“It’s going to be several weeks before we can say the whole state’s safe,” Cleaves said.

Significant rain this weekend could result in ice jams, which effectively dam the rivers and cause them to overflow their banks.

“If we get the rain, ice jamming is definitely a potential,” Greg Stewart of the U.S. Geological Survey told hydrologists, geologists, municipal and utility officials at Thursday’s meeting.

The potential for flooding is much smaller along rivers in central, southern and coastal sections of Maine, Stewart said. The National Weather Service said rain is likely Saturday night and Sunday.

Also a factor is the snowpack, which was normal or below normal south of Aroostook County, but above normal in Maine’s northernmost county.

Thursday’s commission meeting came a day after a scare in Augusta when ice measuring 18 inches to 7 feet thick jammed, threatening to send the Kennebec River over its banks and prompting some downtown businesses to move their goods to higher ground.

But huge sheets of ice broke up and separated, creating a natural channel down the middle of the river and averting flood worries for the time being. A series of photos illustrating the ice movement was shown Thursday.

Conditions along the Saco and Androscoggin rivers were reported to be normal for this time of the year.

Amid all the talk about flooding, the commission also was told that precipitation in Maine has been below normal for the past 12-month period. The dry conditions are most severe in western areas from Moosehead Lake south and west toward New Hampshire, said Tom Hawley, hydrologist for the National Weather Service.

Experts say it could take years of above-average rainfall to replenish the state’s water supply to optimum levels.