Morning Sentinel from Waterville, Maine • 1

Special Storm Edition KENNEBEC JOURNAL 16 PAGES 50 CENTS 1998 Guy Gannett Communications Ittnritiiui Scutiud RIDAY JAMJAR Y1 998 More OH Pecie 2 Augusta road crews needed Somerset County escapes Gov Angus King declares BMoreima es from the storm time to regroup wrath state of emergency Ima9es r0 Central Maine freezes over Staff photo by JOE PHELAN A Central Maine Power lineman removes a tree limb from power lines on lorence Street In Augusta on Thursday afternoon About 35000 people were without powers after Ice and tree limbs brought down power lines '1SI3S3 tCTrbMB AMawwMMMtulhffifjrnvPTjMiy iL ilt ryUTsjtlAZ BKWgesSffMiMivA ntWMWwSKftl AnejJSpafcjgfi ggf MffliWiMMBMiWMWIMlfciiJrri 'i im VHin i ii iii iMM1 iiilii Waterville takes people to shelters By DARLA PICKETT Staff Writer Much of the greater Waterville area ground to a standstill Thursday as an ice storm sliced down through the state cutting off power dropping limbs into roadways and severing communications with outlying towns Mayor Ruth Joseph declared a state of emergency at 8:42 am when she learned that the city was without 40 percent of its power By 12:30 pm Central Maine Power Co spokesman Mark Ishkanian had updated that figure to 10000 homes without power and predicted that some outages could last into the weekend Police Chief John Morris said the entire city was without power at noontime At 9:04 am city officials began evacuating patients from nursing homes that had been without power since 5:30 am according to the mayor and Darrel ournier who was also acting director of Emergency Preparedness The evacuations were accom plished through an emergency oper ations center established at the Central fire Station where a pool of city employees were fielding a bar rage of emergency telephone calls from throughout the city Three buses from the Waterville School System were activated as emergency vehicles for transferring nursing home patients and police cruisers were kept busy with a steady flow of calls for individuals seeking transportation Police Sgt Lee Gilbert said he called in additional help and asked some officers to remain on duty Sixteen residents of the Sunset Nursing Home on College Avenue were transferred to the nearby Willows Nursing Home where auxil iary power was available Mayor Joseph said she had been in touch with the command post with her cellular phone from her home since 3 a when the powfer went out at her Aubrey Street home birch tree broke or bent on my house and knocked out all the lights "she said At the Woodlawn Nursing Home on the West River road 41 patients were evacuated to the Mount Saint Joseph nursing home on College Avenue At noontime Inland Hospital offi cials said they had filled all but four of the hospital's extra beds and would be unable to take more evac uees Eight children and three adults were evacuated from Wilson Street to Mount Meric! School on Chase Street where an emergency shelter had been established However that shelter was closed at about 2 pm when they lost their generating power and evacuees were transferred to the field house at Colby Harold Alfond Athletic Complex The mayor said that several eat Pkasr stt WATERVILLE Pap 2 CMP struggles to restore power PHONES Htmr AUGUSTA Pap 2 By ALAN CROWELL Staff Writer area of extreme icing" Ishkanian also warned residents to use care and common sense when using wood stoves kerosene lamps and candles AUGUSTA An ice storm hit the Central Maine area with the force of a hurricane Thursday morning knocking out power to over 185000 people and stranding thousands as falling tree limbs and Icy roads made travel treacherous In the capital city overwhelmed emergency crews warned residents to stay home and avoid icy roads Police also asked that residents use emergency lines only if health or safety is threatened Central Maine Power spokesman In Augusta power wws restored tb most traffic lights early tn the after noon after the outage forced com muters to deal with a free for all on Western Avenue and other arteries eartier in the day Augusta city officials met at noon in the city center Thursday to plan the response Cony High School was named the emergency shelter Acting City Manager David Jowdry said rain is expected to continue for at least another 24 hours and the recovery process win be slow "We are warning people it (the outage) is going to go into the week end for some people" said Ishkanian About 35000 people were without power to the Augusta area and lines crews were only able to make limit ed progress repairing the system as steady precipitation continued to stress trees and break power lines 1 ttken this to the kind of damage you see from a mgjor hurricane a once to 10 years kind of hurricane" swi preto by LEaahwj Waterville firefighters help a woman as they evacuate the Sunset Nursing Home The entire city wee without power Thursday and people were taken to emergency shelters with heat The phones of emergency dis patchers and relief workers in the area were ringing off the hook Thursday Here are some local numbers however which resi dents in need of assistance or shelter may try contacting American Red Cross Kennebec Valley Chapter 626 3446 Mid Maine Chapter 453 8029 Cony High School (emergency shelter) 626 2460 Central Maine Power outage reporting hotline 1 800 696 1000 MaineGeneral Medical Center Augusta Campus 626 1 000 Waterville Campus 872 1000 Shelter information available in Augusta at 626 2421 yipH 0B IW IWHlift iTOilnlInffl tinted will pH Hie 1 1 It fh I III 6 or more information: or updtoatf today's top stories pitaw Aufiueta C34 MS7 6511300 WaterriO cneu Top (tones 10M TWATamp 1000 tWSKorw axe Ww toil Sax quota 1190 TatoyijM OOS meaty iOS Drang Ws Toospcm 3000 WORLDWIDEWEB Ppdried kforestoos ui Aries ao br had os oar Web pagvs Sorry Because of technical problems associated with the severe Ice storm and its effects on communities in Central Maine we are presenting a combined Kennebec Journal Morning Sentinel special edition Many regular features do not appear We apologize for the inconvenience iur wrw 1 i i If 1.