The damage was extensive in Jay and other western Maine towns after nearly six inches of rain fell in only a few hours. The washouts crumbled some state and side roads, many of which are still being fixed.
Richard asked the CBS13 I-Team:
“It seems like we’re seeing more and more damage from recent storms. What’s the state doing to make sure our roads can handle these stronger storms?”
There’s certainly no doubt Maine has seen some unique weather events in recent years and the rainstorm last week was no outlier.
While the town of Jay took the brunt of it, communities across Oxford and Franklin counties saw damage as well.
State transportation officials say they’ve noticed a shift in the strength of storms as well and are working on ways to make sure the infrastructure they repair can handle those changes so these types of washouts don’t happen over and over.
“A lot of the fixing that we do over the coming days and weeks will be short term. Just to get traffic moving again. Maine has four seasons, and the weather is often wild. Mother Nature is unpredictable. It’s always changing. It will factor into the way we try to plan for resilience. In terms of upsizing culverts and strengthening infrastructure so when we have a freak event, we’re better able to handle that,” Paul Merrill, with the Maine Department of Transportation, said.
The state says it’s still too early to put a dollar amount on last week’s storm but as infrastructure repairs get more complex, the other big question is how much these more unpredictable storms will cost communities.
In the past, federal money has helped but as the CBS13 I-Team has reported, that money is getting harder to compete for.