TROOP 189 HELPS EVACUATE HOMES DURING FORT KENT FLOOD
Save town's phone service during crisis
When the emergency call came at 6:30 am. last Wednesday, April 30, 2008, 14 scouts from Fort Kent's Troop 189 answered. By 7:00 am. they had all arrived at the Block House, a historic fort built in 1841, and the log cabin Trading Post, the Troop's meeting place.
The Fish River was rapidly rising on three sides, and the Troop's gear, photographs, regalia and memorabilia were in danger. So the boys and their leaders immediately began the process of emptying the valuables out of the buildings onto waiting trailers and trucks.
Shortly thereafter, the Scouts noticed that nearby homes on Block House Road and Meadow Lane were still occupied. The Scouts began knocking on doors and telling the families about the impending danger of rising water. They then helped five families to evacuate their homes and save their at-risk personal property. Furniture, clothing, and other valuables were loaded into trucks to be taken to safety. Thousands of dollars of property were saved in about two hours.
A report, written by Julia Bayly of the Bangor Daily News, gives the account of one of the victims.
"At 9 that morning my neighbor and I were out walking and having our second cup of coffee," Pam Lozier said. "At 9:45 we got the word to evacuate."
The next thing Lozier and her husband, Bob, knew, the Fish River was running down the road and a group of local Boy Scouts had arrived to lend many hands.
"There were all these Scouts and some of my family here all of a sudden," Lozier said Monday afternoon during a break in the cleanup. "They all kept asking, ‘What do you want to bring?’ and I just held up my hands. It was like a bad dream."
Working as quickly as possible, the crew dragged everything they could out of the basement up to the ground floor and into waiting trailers to be moved to a storage unit.
"Within 45 minutes there was nothing left on the ground floor," Lozier said. "When I finally left I had to walk through knee-deep water to get to the car [and] there were tears in my eyes."
When the flooding put the town's land line phone service in jeopardy, the Scouts again went into action. The water was rising dangerously close to the vent pipe for the generator that was powering the phone service (the town's power had been shut off due to the flooding). HVAC specialist Gary Harvey was frantic to prevent this. Eagle Scout Kris Guimond, 16, and Assistant Scoutmaster, Troy Desjardins, 18, paddled their canoe, carrying Harvey to the scene. He was able to attach a three-foot aluminum chimney that extended the switching station’s vent pipe and prevented the water from pouring in and destroying the telephone equipment that serves the whole town including the hospital.
In the days that followed, Troop 189 has been active in helping with the community’s cleanup and recovery process. Additionally, Scouts helped unload trucks full of food to restock the shelves of the Greater Fort Kent Ecumenical Food Pantry.
“We definitely appreciate all the help those Boy Scouts gave us. They were a great help,” said Raymond Steichen of the Food Pantry.
While the Troop was able to save much of their gear, Troop records and photographs; several patrol boxes did sit in eight inches of water for some time. The troop will be inspecting and disinfecting all effected equipment this weekend.
