CARIBOU – Up to 24 inches of snow and winds that gusted to 47 mph buffeted much of Aroostook County on Sunday and through Monday morning, giving the area its worst storm in 19 years, weather officials said.

“This was a genuine blizzard,” Larry Gabric, meteorologist in charge at the National Weather Service at Caribou, said Monday. “Blizzard warnings were in place from Sunday afternoon through early Monday morning.

“This was one of those storms that comes along every 20 years or so,” the meteorologist said.

Municipal and state highway crews worked 12- and 24-hour shifts through the period, trying to keep roads open and passable. In some instances, the effort failed in the face of Mother Nature’s might.

All Aroostook County schools were closed Monday, as were the District and Superior courts. Department of Human Services offices were closed, and University of Maine campuses at Presque Isle and Fort Kent canceled all classes. Many agencies whose services were not essential or of an emergency nature also stayed closed Monday.

Many businesses opened late on Monday morning, though some stayed closed all day through much of the county.

Some roads were still unopened in Caribou, police there said at midday Monday. There also were reports of closed roads in the Presque Isle area Monday morning.

For the most part, people stayed home during the storm, and local and state police reported no serious problems.

Forecasters said another storm, which could bring up to 10 inches of snow to northern Maine, could arrive during the night Monday, or Tuesday at the latest.

Gabric reported 24 inches of snow at the NWS office in Caribou, 22 inches at Madawaska, 20 inches at Presque Isle, 19 inches at Portage Lake and 18 inches at Connors and Van Buren.

In Houlton, 14 inches of snow fell, while the Patten area received 17 inches of snow.

Allagash, on the other hand, had only 8 inches.

Winds blew at 30 to 40 mph from midafternoon Sunday through Monday morning. Gusts of 47 mph were reported at the NWS office.

Still, the heavy snowfall did not break the record for a 24-hour period at Caribou. The record is 28.6 inches on March 15, 1984.

Gabric said the Egypt Road at Presque Isle was still closed at 11 a.m. Monday. A meteorologist who lives in the area was unable to get home and had to spend the night at the station, Gabric said.

Madawaska Police Chief Ronald Pelletier said Monday there were no serious motorist problems during the period; just some fender benders, and a few people got stuck.

“Most people that had no business being in the road stayed home,” he said.

Other police departments from Houlton north echoed Pelletier’s statement.

“I’ve never seen it this bad,” Yves Lizotte, supervisor of the Madawaska Public Works Department, said Monday afternoon. “I’ve been working for the department for 27 years.

“On a pris une moyenne [We took a good hit],” he said, before taking some time off to rest and get some sleep. “We had hard times through the night.

“The wind was the worst part,” he said. “Snowplow operators reported snow drifts four to six feet high on some roads during the night.”

It was the same in towns throughout Aroostook County. Man and machines were tested through the 24-hour storm.

One of the Madawaska department’s 10-wheeler snowplows went off the road and into the ditch on Aspen Road at about 9 p.m. Sunday. It was 2:30 a.m. before two wreckers and another truck were able to extricate the plow truck.

Lizotte’s full-time crew was out at 7 a.m. Sunday. They were given a break from 7 p.m. Sunday to 3 a.m. Monday, during which the part-time crews operated the machinery. The full-time crew was still out on the roads at 1 p.m. Monday.

Lizotte said his men cleaned off Main Street six times during the storm. They removed 400 loads of snow from the business section with trucks that carry 30 to 40 cubic yards a load.

The local crews were expected to continue their cleanup Monday night after traffic slowed for the night.