JAY — The preliminary damage estimate for Franklin County is about $4.6 million from the flash flood June 29, with another $1.8 million to state roads.
The bulk of the damage, nearly $4 million, was in Jay where several roads were washed out, along with about 1,300 feet of sewer lines.
Between 5 and 6 inches of rain fell in two hours during the afternoon and evening.
Maine Emergency Management Agency received just over $4.6 million in initial damage estimates for Franklin County, including to state infrastructure, Vanessa Corson, public information officer for the agency, said. “No other counties submitted enough monetary damages to meet their respective thresholds. MEMA will be working next week to validate damages alongside federal, state, county and local partners,” she said.
The state infrastructure includes the Whistle Stop Trail that runs between Wilton and Jay.
Chesterville reported $19,094.79 in preliminary damage and Wilton reported $9,000, Sara Bickford, deputy Franklin County Emergency Management director, said.
Damage to state roads is being considered separately, she said.
A Jay public works crew works June 30 to get residents access to their homes on Soules Hill Road. The road was undermined in the June 29 rainstorm. Sun Journal file
The preliminary estimates were collected for consideration of a federal Presidential Declaration of Disaster to get money for repairs. Otherwise, towns and the state will need to pay for the repairs.
Franklin County’s initial damage estimates exceed its $130,000 threshold and the state’s $2.41 million threshold to qualify for disaster funding.
The preliminary estimate for state roads in Jay and Wilton is estimated at about $1.8 million, Paul Merrill, spokesman for the Maine Department of Transportation, said.
The bulk of the damage is on a section of state Route 133 in Jay. It is not expected to reopen for another few weeks.
In Jay, the majority of roads have reopened to through traffic.
A section of the Whistle Stop Trail, a multiuse rail-trail owned by the state, is shut down from U.S. Route 2/state Route 4 in Dryden village in Wilton to Jay Plaza in Jay. It received about $500,000 in damage, Brian Bronson, supervisor of the state’s Off Road Recreational Vehicle Program, said previously.
The rest of the trail from Wilton to Farmington is open and the section from downtown Jay is open to Jay Plaza.
It might not be fixed until next year, Bronson said, due to money and time. The trail is owned by the Department of Conservation’s Bureau of Parks and Lands.
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