By Amanda Estes

Staff Writer

    The Patriots Day storm that brought snow and more
than four inches of rain to the greater Portland area, slowly loosened
its grip on the Northeast on Tuesday, allowing citizens and municipal
officials to get to the task of cleaning up.  Although it was too
early for an accurate assessment of damages, public officials from
South Portland and Cape Elizabeth said they would be dealing with the
storm’s aftermath for weeks to come.

    South Portland City Manager Ted Jankowski said with
the exception of a few isolated places, electricity was restored Monday
night. He said downed trees and wires had kept the eastern part of the
city offline.

    He said the city “faired relatively well” and the
major concerns were people stranded in their cars, flooded basements,
and downed wires. The early morning tide, accompanied by high winds,
was the worst part of the storm, he said.

    Dana Anderson, Director of South Portland Public
Works, said his “outstanding” crew was out for 48 hours straight.
Public works spent Tuesday cutting up debris and removing it from the
roadways, a task Anderson estimated will take another two to three
weeks. He said most of the fallen trees had been removed from right of
ways and sidewalks, but there were still three or four more trees that
fell on houses and had yet to be removed. Anderson also said the storm
had a major impact on beaches in terms of erosion. He said Willard
Beach and Bug Light Park were hard hit areas.

    Cape Elizabeth was still experiencing power outages
on Tuesday as Town Manager Michael McGovern estimated one third of the
community was without electricity. Public Works Director Robert Malley
said a lot of large trees fell and took wires down with them.

    He said there were still almost 100 streets without power on Tuesday.

    The sewage pumping stations were also offline, and
he said Portland Water District was bringing generators to the various
stations. He said his crew worked from 6 a.m. to midnight on Monday,
unclogging drains, removing trees, setting up barricades, and closing
roads.

    On Tuesday, the town was still dealing with road
blockages including Shore Road, Old Ocean House Road, and portions of
Sawyer Road.

    “It’s clear that we probably had more tree damage
from this storm than in the last 25 years,” said McGovern. Fir trees,
he said, do not have strong root systems to withstand ground
saturation. Malley said the combination of strong winds and heavy
participation and ground that was already soft from the last weather
event, caused the trees to be uprooted rather than break in half. As
public works collects and grinds the fallen trees, Anderson estimated
there to be “thousands and thousands of dollars” worth of damage.

    Cape Elizabeth Fire and Rescue Chief Philip
McGouldrick said the department received a high volume of calls about
flooded basements. He saw several basements with four to five feet of
standing water. In those instances, he said firefighters help the
homeowner shut the furnace off, but they didn’t have time to do much
else.

    “We had eight trucks responding on calls,” he said.
“As we finished up one call, we went on to another call.” McGouldrick
said the department didn’t respond to any serious calls and for the
most part people were cautious if they had to go
outside.   

    As of 5 p.m. Monday, Jankowski said South Portland’s
Public Safety division had received 46 service calls. McGovern said the
town brought in an extra dispatcher to handle the steady volume of
calls. A. Charles Kennedy, Cape Elizabeth’s Emergency Preparedness
Director, estimated the dispatch center received 400 calls.

    At a recent Town Council meeting, McGovern urged
citizens not to call the dispatch number during emergencies with
non-emergency questions, such as when power would be restored. He said
dispatchers do not have such information. McGovern asked that residents
take steps to be more self-sufficient, such as keeping a battery
operated radio handy.

    Among those calls was a rescue call for Fort
Williams Park, where a person had been injured on the rocks. McGovern
said town officials urged people to stay away from the coast, but some
people still insisted on getting a closer look.

    According to the National Weather Service Web Site,
Cape Elizabeth experienced 81 miles per hour wind gusts around 8 a.m.
on Monday. The heaviest wind gust was 156 miles per hour recorded at
Mount Washington in New Hampshire.