BANGOR, Maine - Three U.S. Coast Guard ships will break ice on the Penobscot River to ease concerns over ice jam flooding.
The Coast Guard is sending the ships to the Bangor area on Tuesday. The ships are ice-breaking cutters that are instructed to clear a safe path for ice to flow out to sea. Coast Guard officials say the effort could take up to three days depending on conditions.
David Bourbeau, chief of waterways management for the Coast Guard's Northern New England sector, says the ice breakers "really have their work cut out for them'' but the work is needed so runoff has somewhere to flow.
The ships are the 140-foot Thunder Bay and 65-foot cutters Tackle and Bridle.