Many New Englanders face an un-joyous holiday season
Megan Michaud and her family of five lost power for three days after a powerful storm throttled her home state of Maine, and a new challenge is creeping up on her: It's almost time for Christmas.
“This morning, my second grader told me, `It's five days until Christmas' and I told myself that can't be right,” said Michaud, 42, of Kennebunkport. “But it turns out the calendar keeps moving even when you're in the middle of something.”
Michaud has had to toss all of the family's food. She has not wrapped a single gift and hasn't been able to start prepping Christmas dinner because of the chaos the storm has unleashed in Maine. She spent three days heating her home with a gas fireplace, shuffling back and forth from her parents' house and waiting patiently for power before it was finally restored Wednesday afternoon.
It's a scene playing out all over northern New England, where the havoc wrought by an unexpectedly strong storm has made the festive season anything but.
The heavy pre-Christmas storm that hit Monday has brought dangerous flooding and widespread power outages to Maine. The aftermath of the storm has left hundreds of thousands in the dark, closed ski resorts, washed out roads, closed bridges and caused families to throw away spoiled holiday food. It's unclear when everyone will have power back, but officials and utilities in the state have said some will have to wait until the holiday.
People across the northeastern U.S. were still mopping up Wednesday after the storm dumped torrential rains and brought damaging winds from Pennsylvania to Maine, as some rivers in the region rose even higher. Some of the worst damage was in Vermont and Maine.
At least five people in East Coast states were killed in the storms with deaths reported in Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts and Maine.
Democratic Maine Gov. Janet Mills said water levels were expected to drop in the coming days but they remained dangerously high and posed a serious risk in many parts of the state. The Kennebec River, which runs through Augusta, and the Sandy, Swift, Carrabassett and Androscoggin rivers were all seeing higher water levels than typical, leading to damage and closures, the Maine Department of Transportation said. Mills urged people in heavily impacted areas to avoid travel Wednesday. It was a tough blow just before the holiday, Mills said.
“It can't be ignored that this storm arrives just a few days before Christmas, a time of joy,” Mills said. “For many in Maine that may no longer be the case. People dealing with the loss of their homes and damage to property.”