Today's blog is about a very bad late Fall rainstorm that created record flooding in Maine. Fortunately, we are far enough away from the coast, and far enough south, that we didn't bear any of the brunt of the storm's worst. Today's blog explains the history and describes our storm prep, and the small impact we experienced.
(On Dec. 18, 2023, the woodlands at the side of our yard flooded with the rush of water from upstream. Credit: R.G.)
THE STORM
On December 18, 2023, eastern New England was hit with a powerful low-pressure system packing wind gusts of more than 55 mph in coastal areas, and bringing very heavy rainfall, with amounts as high as 5". The damage from rain and heavy winds caused widespread power outages, flooding and road washouts throughout north, central and coastal Maine. There were over 100 road closures throughout the state, according to the Portland Press Herald.
By Dec. 21, almost 1,000 workers from the Maine Dept of Transportation assessed and continued repairing damage from Monday's storm.
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VIDEO CAPTION: The run-off next to our house is seen here. fortunately, we live far enough away from a river, but rainfall caused a lot of runoff into the woods on one side of our home, flooding the woods. Credit: R.G)
OUR STORM PREP AT HOME
We received about 3" of rain over 24 hours. That's about 3 week's worth of rain in one day. Next to our home is a drain that carries water from the woods on the north side of our street, goes under the street and out in a culver next to our house. During and after the storm, there was a lot of flooding in our adjacent woods. Fortunately, I knew the storm was coming so dug a path for the water from that drain to stay away from the house, and track through the woodland buffer between our home and the next house. 
(Photo: The three drains that run under the street were raging with water for about 12 hours. Credit: R.G.)
We also have a generator that will power the heat and lights for 8 hours. We installed it after we built the house upon my insistence, because of some of the snow and ice storms Maine has tended to receive. Fortunately, we never lost power during this storm, as lights only flickered, but 400,000 other Maine residents were not so lucky.
END RESULT FOR US
We didn't lose power, and are grateful that the builder of our development buried the powerlines, which I'm sure helped with winds gusting to 55 mph here. We lost about 5 trees in the forest path, each of them slender, but tall... as tall as 40 plus feet high! We had a LOT of limbs down all around the house and in the forest. Flooding from runoff remained just in the woods to the left of our house, and went back over 1 acre into the woods far behind the house where it still sits as a small pond.
(Photo: Robert F. Bukaty/AP Cars are flooded in a parking lot at the Hathaway Creative Center alongside the Kennebec River, Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2023, in Waterville, Maine. A severe storm on Monday flooded rivers and knocked out power to hundreds of thousands.)
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