ROME — To say that Carroll Bubar is a busy man would be like saying Maine has experienced some wind and rain recently.

Both are massive understatements.

Bubar, the road commissioner in Rome, has had a lot on his plate following the massive storm that left thousands in the region and across the state without power. As road commissioner, Bubar is generally in charge of taking care of small camp roads and town roads.

“When they call, I haul,” he said, sitting in the cab of his truck Friday afternoon at the Rome Town Office.

But the fallout from the effects of Tropical Storm Philippe made Bubar’s week a little more challenging. Trees were blown down by the wind, taking down utility poles and wires with them, knocking out power and, in some cases, blocking roads and causing damage.

“I got two hours sleep the first night in my truck,” he said.

Bubar, who said his phone has been ringing nonstop since the storm blew in Monday morning, said by Friday he was mostly touching base with people he assisted, seeing if roads had been fully cleared and wires were moved out of the way.

“There were many, many trees across the road,” he said.

While Bubar said most of the work he’s been doing has been checking on roads and fallen branches, he has also inspected damage. On Friday, he took the Morning Sentinel out to a green house by Gray Pond on Spring Lane, where a massive tree had fallen into the house and crushed the roof.

Bubar said the house is occupied seasonally, and no one was home when the tree fell in the storm. But still, the scene is jarring.

“I wouldn’t want to be out here,” he said.

The two-story green house, which overlooks the pond just a few yards away, had been cut nearly in half by the massive pine tree.

“You can see daylight right through it,” he said outside the home.

Bubar continues to get phone calls from people asking him to check on their camps.

“I need an operator,” he joked. “My phone’s always ringin’.”

Just up the road from the damaged camp, another massive tree had taken out a tangle of power lines. While Bubar said he had not helped clear that particular mess of trees and wires, it was a good representation of the kind of work he’d been up to this week.

“I been around so many of ’em,” he said.

Bubar, who has been the road commissioner in Rome for three years, said he’s been going at an almost nonstop pace, helping residents start their generators, getting trees out of roads and driveways.

“I ain’t got a whole night’s sleep until last night,” Bubar said Friday afternoon.

He even got into a little trouble with the power companies for using an excavator to clear Mercer Road with downed lines nearby — though he didn’t describe it as a little trouble.

“I got chewed out,” he said.

But he said it was still the right call. “If a woman’s stranded in her house and couldn’t get out, what do you think I’m gonna do?”

Some residents, such as Rose Talbot, could have been one of those stranded if not for Bubar’s help. Talbot, who lives on a secluded road, was blocked in by a fallen tree that also knocked out her power. She said Bubar sent a crew down her road to clear the tree, and then Bubar came down later that day just to check on her and make sure all the power lines were out of the way.

“He could not be more help,” she said.

Bubar also returned to Talbot’s aid Friday morning after her generator stopped working. The generator said it was empty, but it had just been filled.

“I figured, let me call Carroll,” she said.

“She didn’t have no more power,” Bubar said.

After they put a quart of oil in the generator, they got the machine running, which allows her to cook herself meals.

“No matter when I call, he comes,” she said.

Because of Bubar, Talbot was able to make dinner for her friends and neighbors still without power. She had to search online how to cook a roast in a frying pan, she said.

“He was so helpful this morning,” she said, sitting in her sun room.

Bubar also plows the rural road Talbot lives on, and she said he’ll sometimes shovel her walkway if she hasn’t done it by the time he comes.

“He takes good care of me,” she said.

After sitting in Rose’s sun room for a few minutes Friday afternoon, Bubar had to leave. Even with the promise of more rain on the way, he had to go back to work.

But Bubar will be back. After the first snow of the year, Talbot will know Bubar has been back when she sees a plowed driveway.

Until then, Bubar will certainly find more work to be done throughout the town.

“Rose, take it easy, dear,” Bubar said as he left her home.

“Always,” she said, closing the door as he left.

Colin Ellis — 861-9253

cellis@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @colinoellis

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