Rising St. John River spurs flood watch

FORT KENT – The St. John River has risen 10 feet in the last seven days and is expected to rise more through the day Friday and Saturday, prompting the National Weather Service to issue a flood watch for the river basin through the St. John Valley.

Mark Turner, service hydrologist with the NWS, expects the river to run “bank full” Saturday and may rise over its banks before the river peaks at Fort Kent.

According to Fort Kent Police Chief Kenneth Michaud Thursday morning, the St. John River was at 21.81 feet and predicted to rise to 27 feet before cresting.

Last Thursday, the St. John River at Fort Kent was at 11.4 feet. Flood stage at Fort Kent is 28 feet. The river must rise to 32 feet to lap the underside of the International Bridge there.

Turner said the NWS has also issued a flood warning along the Mattawamkeag River, where the water was 1.3 feet over minor flood stage. He said water was flooding camp roads. The agency is also keeping an eye on the Aroostook River at Masardis.

Over the weekend at Allagash, an ice jam at the Big Rapids broke suddenly and water and ice overran Route 161 just below the bridge over the St. John River. Six feet of water and ice covered the road for three hours. Electric power was lost for about one hour.

Roy Gardner, a river watcher at Allagash, said two homes had a couple of feet of water in their basements.

“We expect a slow and steady rise through Friday and Saturday,” Turner said of the St. John River. “There is still 10 to 12 inches of water locked in snow pack in northwestern Maine. There is more than two feet of snow left in the woods.

“We are melting a historic snow pack,” he said. “The St. John and Big Black Rivers are showing significant rises that will approach bank full this weekend.”

Turner said some roads are kind of spooky with the water so close to the pavement. He urged residents to keep an eye on rivers through the snow melt period. He believes rivers will abate sometime next week.

He also urged people to stay off waterways because they are all very high and moving very fast.

Turner said Thursday that the next 24 to 48 hours will be critical along the St. John River.

At Fort Kent, Michaud could not believe the St. John River would rise to 27 feet. He expects the river will be going down by Sunday. The waters of the St. John River were creeping up into lower level parking lots and fields and getting near a housing complex off East Main Street.

The Fish River, he said, is clear of ice to Eagle Lake. He said that river did not have much ice through the winter.

Gardner said last weekend’s excitement at Allagash is gone. He said the river still has walls of ice 15 feet high left over from the ice jam. The water and ice which covered Route 161 Saturday also went over the Ferry Road. The basements at the home of Leonard Kelly and Sheldon McBreairty had water in them during that period.

“The water is still rising slowly at Allagash,” he said. “Everything is quiet.”

He said measurements showed 7.2 inches of water in the snow in the Allagash woods where there remains a lot of snow on the ground. Near his home, he said the snow was less than a foot, about 8 inches on Thursday morning.