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Blizzard Wallops Maine as More Snow Looms

Many schools remain closed or delayed today after a ferocious winter storm blew into Maine Sunday night, shutting down most of the state for all or part of the day Monday. The Nor'easter left more than 3 feet of snow at several locations in Maine. The National Weather Service reports that 40 inches of snow fell in Hudson, Bradford, Kenduskeag and Glenburn, towns surrounding Bangor. In eastern Maine, Whiting reported 38 inches and Jonesboro 36 inches.
 
There were strong winds as well, including gusts of 47 mph at Brunswick, 48 mph at South Bristol and 55 inches at Isle au Haut.

White-out conditions prevailed through northern areas and particularly Down East, where state highways crews took their trucks off the roads after experiencing near-zero visibility driving conditions.

With heavy snow, gusting winds and sub-zero wind chills, the largest blizzard of the winter season brought most activity in the state to a standstill. Airports closed, outpatient surgery at one major hospital was canceled for the day and thousands of motorists stayed off the roads to give local and state plow crews a chance to push back against the storm.

The major airports in Maine were closed as a result of the storm, and that included the Portland Jetport, where Portland resident Rick Jones works. The good news for Jones was that he didn’t have to work. The bad news? He still had to find his car parked near his apartment complex.

“Just getting up in the morning and finding your car is all the way stuck and snow above the tire, straight like against the door,” he says. “I’m lucky I didn’t have work this morning, man.”

At the National Weather Service in Gray, meteorologist Tom Hawley says the storm was dumping snow in excess of 20 inches in many areas of the state.  Some Maine towns, including Starks and Nobleboro, saw at least 30 inches of snow.

Hawley says that gusting winds posed the greatest threat to visibility on the highway.

“Well you’re going to see gusts of probably more than 50 mph and they’ll last right through the afternoon and into the early evening,” he says.

That’s money in the bank for small snowplow operators, like Will, who declined to give his last name. Like many other plow jockeys, Will had stopped into Dunkin’ Donuts on Odlin Road in search of a chocolate glazed.

“Let me just double check on that donut, we’ve been kind of cleaned out, hold on just a minute,” the cashier says. “Yeah I don’t a chocolate glazed but I do have a chocolate glazed stick.”

This blizzard, Will says, was one of the worst he’s worked, with snow so heavy that he had plowed some customers five times since the storm began.

“It’s not fun, visibility is zero, there’s still people out there in cars — and there shouldn’t be,” he says.

And for those who prefer to take care of their own driveway-clearing chores, the storm provided a challenge. Homeowner Peter Voss of Falmouth was lucky to have a snowblower with the latest high-tech accouterments.

“Heated handles, that’s pretty sweet,” he says.

Most hospital emergency rooms remained open, but at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, spokeswoman Helen McKinnon says some services, such as outpatient care, were scaled back during the storm.

“At this point in time when we had enough notice, we decided to make sure and take the steps to keep our staff and patients off the road because it is a critical time for us and we’re still hearing that it’s still very difficult to travel and be seen out there. I think we made the right decision,” she says.

The extended series of storms has also disrupted the attendance schedule at many of Maine’s public schools. Seth Goodwin, who teaches French at Edward Little High School in Auburn, says that while students may not mind having classes canceled today, they could get the bill for all the time off later this year.

“It’s been a tough stretch to get momentum in the classroom. Three snow days last week and today. We only saw the kids Monday and Friday (last week). I think we’re going to be in school till just about the 4th of July if it keeps up like this,” he says.

Decision-makers at the Maine Department of Transportation were also concerned about how long the storm cycle would continue. The state pulled its plow trucks off the highways in the state’s Down East region when driving became impossible due to white-out conditions. DOT spokesman Ted Talbot says the department was reviewing conditions and would send the plows back out as soon as possible.

Talbot says the job was made somewhat easier with fewer cars on the road.

“Well what’s encouraging is that there’s a lot of cancellations today, schools are closed, state offices are closed, that really helps us do what we need to do for plowing,” he says.

State snow removal operations are expected to wind down Tuesday — just in time to prepare for another likely storm on Wednesday.