Gov. Janet Mills says state officials were well prepared for the powerful storm that's led to powerful flooding, closed roadways and bridges and knocked out power for nearly a half a million Maine people.
The governor on Wednesday observed a section of the Kennebec River in downtown Augusta that had flooded nearby businesses and completely swallowed a low-lying street.
Emergency management officials say similar damage is all over the state, at one point closing 100 state roads and more than 20 bridges. Many of the closures were in Oxford, Franklin and Kennebec counties.
The storm also caused at least two deaths and forced evacuations.
At a press conference that followed, Mills was asked if the state had been as ready for this storm as it was for September's Hurricane Lee, which had prompted the governor to call a preemptive state of emergency and request a Presidential Emergency Disaster Declaration.
Mills says the state prepares the same way for every storm, but she acknowledged that some recent severe weather forecasts haven't materialized.
"We've seen emergencies before where people ran to the hardware stores and the food stores and stocked up and then the storm did not appear to amount to as much of an emergency as predicted," she said. "That happens. The reverse can happen, too. But we were prepared in the same respect that we're prepared for all emergencies."
Maine Emergency Management Agency director Peter Rogers says the state began tracking the storm last week and worked with electricity utilities to ensure that backup line workers and tree crews were staged before it ravaged the state on Monday.
A spokesperson for CMP said the number out-of-state crews called in for this storm was similar to Hurricane Lee.
Full power restoration is expected to take several more days, as is a full assessment of infrastructure damage.
