MAINE, Maine — Town officials along the Maine coast, south of Portland, are preparing for another major storm on Saturday.
Many homes and businesses are still drying out and cleaning up from floodwaters that caused damage earlier this week, and those areas are expected to be impacted again.
Scarborough's Deputy Fire Chief John Brennan said the town had a lot of infrastructure damage from Wednesday's storm, so public works crews were preparing Friday to block off roads that are expected to get flooded again.
Due to that anticipated flooding, the Scarborough Police Department announced road closures in a news release:
"Sawyer Street, between Spurwink Road and into Cape Elizabeth at 8:00 AM until further notice. Additionally, Ocean Avenue will be closed at Spurwink Road at 8:00 AM until further notice. Black Point Road at the Black Point Inn will be closed by 8:00 AM as well until further notice. We are anticipating additional road closures on Route 1 at the marsh, Payne Road between Route 1 and Beech Ridge Road, Pine Point Road at the Nature Center, Pine Point Road by the Clambake Restaurant, as well as Black Point Road between Eastern Road and Highland Avenue. These areas will only be accessible to residents only."
Brennan reminded residents to take those road closers seriously because they're put in place to keep people safe. He also warns against people driving through closed or flooded roads to get closer to high waves or storm damage.
"They're just doing it at a great risk to themselves, and unfortunately when that happens, it puts our public safety team at risk as well, because then we have to go in and hopefully safely remove them from that problem that could have been prevented," he said.
Brennan added he feels for the residents who will have to continue their cleanup efforts after making progress over the last few days.
Crews worked all day at homes around Higgins Beach, one of the hardest hit areas Wednesday, to get a head-start on restoration efforts.
Similar safety reminders were echoed by Wells' Chief of Police Jo-Ann Putnam, where residents are also dealing with storm damage from Wednesday.
"Those same areas will be impacted with this storm, so people need to be smart about it and respect the ocean," she said.
Putnam added the town only has three access roads to its beach area. Those roads could be flooded again Saturday, which could prevent first responders from getting to that part of town. Putnam said if you want to stay at your house near the water, you should be prepared to stay there for 24 hours, just in case.
The chief also warned against people putting themselves in harm's way to look at the waves during high tide Saturday. The department will be posting videos and photos of damage and of the ocean on its social media pages for residents to check out.
A dredging project in the harbor already forced the vast majority of infrastructure in the water to clear out, including boats. Wells' Harbormaster Michael Yorke said the timing of the project was fortunate.
Old Orchard Beach also announced road closures ahead of Saturday's storm:
"Road closures will be implemented starting at 8:00 am on Saturday along the immediate coast. This includes restrictions to local traffic only on East Grand Avenue, West Grand Avenue, and all areas of Ocean Park. Old Orchard Street and The Square will be completely closed to all traffic. Additional road closures will occur as high tide approaches and may last for several hours. Traveling in and around Old Orchard Beach will be dangerous on Saturday. If you are not a resident of or have immediate business to conduct in Orchard Beach, do not travel here. Emergency crews will be busy mitigating storm related hazards, and unnecessary vehicular and foot traffic in the affected area makes their jobs more dangerous. If you do have to travel, obey road closures. Do not drive around barricades, they are there for your safety."
NEWS CENTER Maine will have live coverage of the storm Saturday morning with a special STORM CENTER show from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.