FORT KENT – The St. John and Fish rivers reached record levels here Wednesday causing extreme flooding, closing off roads, shutting down the international bridge between Maine and New Brunswick and causing the evacuation of at least 600 people.

Swelled by melting snow and at least 3 inches of rain, the St. John River rose 8.1 feet in less than 24 hours on Tuesday and Wednesday, surging to 29.9 feet by Wednesday evening, well above the 25-foot flood stage. The National Weather Service predicted the St. John would crest at 31 feet at about 2 a.m. Thursday.

Gov. John Baldacci declared a state of emergency in Aroostook County Tuesday night and flew to Fort Kent Wednesday afternoon to get a firsthand view of the worst flooding in the area in decades.

Residents of a senior citizens housing complex and a large apartment building near the confluence of the St. John and Fish rivers were evacuated Tuesday night, and more evacuations were ordered in other parts of town Wednesday morning.

The Fish River, which was at 13.9 feet by Wednesday evening, was expected to crest at 14.6 feet by 2 a.m. Thursday. The previous record high for the Fish River was 12.4 feet, reached in 1979. With the flood stage at 11 feet, water was running over the Fish River Bridge on Main Street by noontime Wednesday.

As the Fish River overran its western bank near where it joins the St. John River, water began flowing into the business district taking an unobstructed route behind an earth and rock dike that protects the district from the St. John. The municipal public works crew and local volunteers helped to create a berm to stem the flow, allowing several pumps to keep up with the water seeping through.

Officials warned, however, that the St. John River would likely spill over the protective dike into the downtown as it crested overnight Thursday.

“I’ve never seen this in 32 years of being in business here,” said Pat Labbe of Nadeau’s House of Furniture in downtown Fort Kent.

As Labbe led a crew of seven men retrieving furniture from the Main Street store early Wednesday morning, he said, “I was asked a few weeks ago about flood insurance. We’ve not needed it since the dike [was built in 1976], but I wish I had it now.”

“We are all overwhelmed with this,” the Rev. James Nadeau, pastor of several St. John Valley Catholic Churches, including St. Louis Catholic Church in Fort Kent, said Wednesday afternoon. “We are trying to regroup for when this recedes.

“We will be fine after we figure things out,” he said. “After Easter there is new life, and after this there will be new life.”

The Rev. Nadeau and a couple of parish workers moved many things from the rectory and church out of harm’s way before the flood waters reached the two Main Street buildings Wednesday morning.

Some things could not be removed, however, and Nadeau said he could only assess the damage after the water recedes.

Officials in Fort Kent also worried that the St. John River could topple the international bridge. Traffic was halted on the bridge Tuesday night. The record high water of the river pushed against the 78-year-old structure all day Wednesday.

James Doucette of the Maine Department of Transportation Bridge Operations Division said Wednesday that the bridge will remain closed until an inspection of the span can be made. He said that could be several days after the waters recede.

There were also anxieties about the dike that had never dealt with this amount of water. Through the day, fears ebbed somewhat as the more than half-mile long levee was doing what it was engineered to do.

For safety reasons officials ordered a mandatory evacuation of some downtown areas about mid-morning Wednesday, forcing those business owners who were emptying their stores of merchandise to leave. Police stopped all but essential traffic into the downtown.

All business in Fort Kent ended up shut down Wednesday. SAD 27 schools were canceled before classes started. The University of Maine at Fort Kent canceled all its classes and activities for the remainder of the week. UMFK students were temporarily moved to the University of Maine at Presque Isle.

The record high St. John River also swamped Route 161 in St. John Plantation, cutting off residents of St. John, St. Francis and Allagash from services in Fort Kent.

The Maine Warden Service, which had about 25 wardens deployed in northern Aroostook County, reported that two of the wardens managed to get heart medication to an elderly woman in St. John despite the road being closed.

Wardens Jeff Spencer and Ryan Fitzpatrick used the Heritage Trail to get to her. The wardens used a chain saw and an axe and were assisted by a potato farmer with a bucket loader and a logging contractor in clearing the trail to get through, according to Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife spokeswoman Deborah Turcotte.

Traffic on Route 1 south of Fort Kent was stopped at the Fort Kent-Frenchville town line and in Frenchville near the Route 1, Brisse Cullotte Road.

In Fort Kent the flooded residential areas included Dufour, River, St. John and Martin streets, and Meadow Lane.

The Fish River Wednesday also flooded the village of Soldier Pond in Wallagrass where a dozen or more homes were evacuated. Several homes there were flooded Wednesday afternoon, including St. Joseph Catholic Church.

“It [the Fish River] just went up real quick,” Bob Thibodeau, a resident of Soldier Pond, said Wednesday afternoon. “It’s awful with our neighbors’ [homes] under water.

“It seems close to cresting, and we will make it,” he said. “I’ve been here 28 years, and I’ve never seen this. We’ve been moving people out.”

Wardens reportedly used a tractor to rescue an elderly couple in Soldier Pond. Wardens Chad Abbott and Brad Richard put the husband and wife and the oxygen tanks each uses to help them breath into the bucket of the tractor and carried them across high water, according to Turcotte.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Gov. Baldacci said after flying over the Fort Kent area in a Maine Forest Service helicopter Wednesday afternoon. “As long as people are safe, we can repair the damages.

“It’s sad out there, but everyone is working together, and there is no loss of life,” he said at the Emergency Operations Center. “People have been evacuated, and it’s wonderful that other people have opened up their homes to them. I’ve never seen anything like that.”

Only a few people who were evacuated showed up at the shelters that were opened to help them. Instead, most of the displaced filled local motels or moved in with relatives, friends and even strangers who offered their homes to help.

Baldacci said it pained him to see the community under water, and he offered the full services of his administration to speed up the recovery.

He was expected to view other areas of Aroostook County affected by the floods on his return flight to southern Maine later in the afternoon.

“We’ve never seen anything like this,” Fort Kent Town Manager Donald Guimond said early Wednesday morning. “Our crews, including volunteers, have been working through the night helping people get out of their homes.”

Guimond said he didn’t know quite what to expect next since the water levels had never reached so high before. He said the previous record for the St. John River was 27.31 feet in 1979, and that had been surpassed by Wednesday morning. Emergency management officials were predicting the St. John River would rise another three feet beyond the 28 feet registered at that time.

“We didn’t even have the time to put [sand] bags out,” Police Chief Kenneth Michaud, who worked through the night Tuesday, said Wednesday morning.

“This is a big endeavor,” Sgt. Dan Menard of the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife said Wednesday afternoon. “We have resources coming in from everywhere.”

Working out of the Lonesome Pine Ski lodge which became an Emergency Operations Center Wednesday morning, Menard was overseeing the disaster relief efforts of 14 agencies from the town, county and state.

“This is no-man’s land right now,” he said, adding that he was pleased affected residents had been evacuated out of harm’s way.

While the water levels were reaching record highs, the cool weather Tuesday night and Wednesday slowed the snowmelt and water runoff, making the situation somewhat less severe than it might have been. During the afternoon Wednesday there were snow flurries with the temperature hovering in the mid to high 30s.

“This certainly gives people a perspective of what Mother Nature can do,” Menard said.