RUMFORD, Maine — More than a month after devastating flooding invaded Rumford and Mexico, signs remained of what nature wrought.
Large tree branches were still lodged into the steel underbelly of a bridge spanning the Swift River and connecting the two towns, an unscientific marker of the waterline during the height of the Dec. 18 flood.
Four people drove into the raging floodwaters that funneled under the bridge. Two of them did not make it out. For many whose homes are there, there was still a long road ahead on Monday.
Fifteen volunteers from the veteran-led nonprofit Team Rubicon drove up from their various New England homes and spent three days cleaning out houses in some of the hardest-hit areas along the Swift.
"I’m retired now. This is what I do for sense of purpose," Deric Shea, incident commander with Team Rubicon, said.
Richard Michaud lives on the street the doomed vehicle turned onto that night. His cement basement had been caked in mud ever since, after dirty water rushed in, filling his basement and the first floor of his home to just below the windows.
"[It's] about the worst I’ve ever gone through," Michaud said. "This is crazy."
The veterans hastily scraped the mud into buckets and handed them through a small window to a chain of others outside. They did the same with large rocks—pieces of the foundation Michaud said had been blown off onto the floor by the water.
"I’ve done pretty much everything myself, and I had to rip up all my flooring; all my bureaus are gone," Michaud explained, grateful for the help.
Locals had been organizing too.
Hardware store manager Kevin Jamison showed us a running list of 85 homes with varying—and color-coordinated—levels of need, from mud in basements to a now-crumbling foundation. He was working to direct the homeowners to a nonprofit fund set up in town and run by Envision Rumford. Jamison said there were others whom he hadn’t been able to reach yet and dozens more who didn’t want help.
"What we’re doing to triage this, in general, is going through one person at a time," he explained. "I’ve called pretty much everybody on this list, personally. And I just started going back through it again today, just to see where we’re at and checking on their current status. Because we want to get people back up and going, and make sure they have heat."
The damage is not contained to downtowns.
A 15-minute drive from Michaud's home, you can’t see the Androscoggin River from Tracy Parise’s house. Yet, on that day, the river engorged so quickly Parise and her husband woke to standing water inside. They escaped when a loved one came with a canoe. On Monday, the home was unrecognizable while contractors replaced the floors, walls, appliances, and electrical systems
And yet, she felt blessed.
"Some people didn’t survive," she said reverently, standing in her living room next to dangling electrical conduits. "We could have gone to sleep and not woken up."
In addition to multiple stores in the Rumford area that are collecting for the fund, anyone interested in contributing can mail a check with Envision Rumford as the recipient to Franklin Savings Bank, PO box 579, Rumford, ME 04276, and they can write "Flood relief fund" in the memo line.
Additionally, envisionrumford@gmail.com can be reached with any questions.