A combination of warm weather, rain and melting snow was feeding floodwaters in low-lying areas of Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont on Saturday.
The National Weather Service in Caribou was reporting potentially dangerous flood levels in Aroostook County Saturday evening, including a flood warning for the Washburn Bridge in Washburn. The bridge was just below flooding levels and Parson Street near the bridge was closed.
“Water has risen above the substructure (of the Washburn Bridge) and just below the decking,” the National Weather Service reported. “With an ice jam just upstream, a dangerous situation is developing.”
Darren Woods, director of the Aroostook County Emergency Management Agency, said motorists should heed any signs warning of flooded or closed roadways.
In Vermont, no injuries were reported, but the Stowe swift water rescue team was staging in the town of Lyndonville in case it was needed in the area near where vehicles had reportedly become stranded in floodwaters.
With heavy rains and warm weather in the forecast for the area known as the Northeast Kingdom, flooding was expected in multiple communities near Lyndon, said the National Weather Service office in Burlington.
Flood warnings and watches remained in effect for much of the three-state region.
The National Weather Service in Gray, Maine, reported that the upper reaches of the Connecticut River at North Stratford was flooding between New Hampshire’s Coos and Vermont’s Essex counties. Some low-lying roads were closed.
Experts were reminding the public never to walk or drive through floodwaters because unexpected currents and unseen washouts can sweep people and vehicles away.
In New Hampshire, state officials were also keeping a close eye on the Ammonoosuc River in the central part of the state.
“In the springtime or if we get a heavy storm, it comes up really fast,” said Sarah Levy, owner of the Wayside Inn located near the Ammonoosuc in the town of Bethlehem. “It turns from an adorable babbling brook to a raging whitewater river.”
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