FORT KENT – The St. John and Aroostook rivers were quietly ebbing or had flattened out by midafternoon Thursday, but the Fish River at Soldier Pond was filling basements of homes, and one family reportedly moved out.

In Portage Lake, according to Darren Woods, Aroostook County Emergency Management assistant director, one family had moved out of its home because of water rising from the pond.

Water also was lapping over a causeway connecting Pelletier Island to the mainland at St. Agatha. One local official wondered whether lake ice would move over the causeway during the night, cutting people off from the mainland.

It rained all day Thursday and the additional water could be entering rivers by Friday morning, causing them to rise, Mark Turner, a hydrologist with the National Weather Service at Caribou, said Thursday afternoon.

“If it keeps raining the water will be on the first floor by morning,” James Bouchard, a resident of Soldier Pond, said Thursday afternoon. “The water is within 6 inches of the furnace motor now, and I may have to shut that off within a short time.

“The basements are full right now,” Bouchard said. “I have pumps working like hell and full time.”

Bouchard said one of his neighbors moved out of his home Thursday, and he and two others may have to move out if the water continues to rise. He said the last time he moved out of his home because of water from the pond, which is part of the Fish River, was 22 years ago.

“In 1973, there was 1 foot of water on the floor in another home I lived just down the road,” he said. “We live right next to the pond.”

Woods said residents at Soldier Pond and Portage were using sandbags to keep the water back. He said several seasonal camps were threatened at Portage Lake.

Paul Bernier, economic development director at St. Agatha, said the causeway to Pelletier Island had about 8 inches of water over it Thursday afternoon. He expected problems as Long Lake ice moves over the causeway.

Some 16 people live on the island year-round. There are also nearly 40 seasonal camps on the island.

“We are OK for now,” Clarence Pelletier, one of the year-round residents said Thursday afternoon. “If the ice remains stable, we will be OK.”

He said ice could cause severe damage to the causeway because it could move large rocks around and can cause erosion.

The St. John River at Fort Kent had been receding since Monday. It had dropped 21/2 feet by Thursday noon, from a high of 23.74 feet Monday to 21.45 feet Thursday noon.

Fort Kent Police Chief Kenneth Michaud said the water had stopped receding by early afternoon and was remaining steady at 21.23 feet at 3 p.m.

Turner said the Fish River was responding differently to the rain from the Aroostook and St. John rivers, which were receding.

“It’s not the rainfall that’s doing it,” he said. “We don’t rightly know.

“We will get 2 inches or more from the rain that started this morning before it gets done Friday,” he said. “We will get a lot of rain tonight [Thursday] and Friday.”

He expected rivers to respond by rising starting Friday morning, and they would not peak until Saturday afternoon.