Category Archives: Disaster

Three tons of lobster perish in Rockland fire | Bangor Daily News

Three tons of lobster perish in Rockland fire | Bangor Daily News.

Body of Maine climber missing since 1989 found | The Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram

Body of Maine climber missing since 1989 found | The Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram.

Teenage girl rescues three brothers in house fire considered total loss | Bangor Daily News

Teenage girl rescues three brothers in house fire considered total loss – Bangor Daily News.

NOAA: ‘Unmistakable’ evidence shows world getting warmer

Farmers find friends indeed: Volunteers step up for a Gorham family after high winds blow down their barn | The Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram

[Tornadoes are not particularly common in Maine, but they are not unheard of either. A couple of them went through southern Maine the other day. One touched down in Gorham, home of the University of Southern Maine. A woman who lives nearby with whom I went to USM says the campus was not hit, but there was quite a bit of damage elsewhere. This link goes to the story and has a link to reader submitted photos. It must have been a very frightening experience for the people who live there. — KM]

Farmers find friends indeed | The Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram.

Three tornadoes confirmed in Maine | Bangor Daily News

Three tornadoes confirmed in Maine | Bangor Daily News

Mainers’ efforts are paying off for earthquake victims in Haiti | The Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram

Mainers’ efforts are paying off for earthquake victims in Haiti | The Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram

For more information on the St. Alban’s Haiti project, visit http://www.stalbansmaine.org/ and click on “Mission and Outreach.”

Visit http://tinyurl.com/35t496a for more information on the Hanger Ivan R. Sabel Foundation’s Haiti efforts.

Visit www.konbitsante.org for more on the Portland-based nonprofit.

Two Auburn families seek to adopt three brothers from Haiti | Lewiston Sun Journal

AUBURN — Spring and Rich Gouette have three kids, an 11-year-old boy and two young girls. Louise and Brian Johnson have three boys; the oldest is 6. Each family considered adoption last fall, yearning to add to their young broods, but the time didn’t feel right for either. The Gouettes had their house up for sale. Moving invited uncertainty. The Johnsons prayed about adoption, leaving the decision with God. They weren’t yet feeling called.

And then, an earthquake struck Haiti in January.

The sale of their house had fallen through and the Gouettes couldn’t see waiting any longer. They connected with a Haitian orphanage through friends and immediately fell in love with a 9-year-old boy named Augenson. He was the one.

Then came news that he wasn’t alone.

Augenson had brothers, 6-year-old Wisler and 2-year-old Wisly.

“We were just in agony: ‘How do we separate the brothers?’” Spring Gouette said. “I put the word out on Facebook, ‘Here’s the deal …’”

Click on the link for the rest of this story by Kathryn Skelton in the Lewiston Sun Journal.

Obama declares federal disaster area in Hancock, York counties | The Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram

Obama declares federal disaster area in Hancock, York counties | The Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram.

Maine DEP sending 2 skimmers, crew to Gulf | The Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram

Maine DEP sending 2 skimmers, crew to Gulf | The Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram.

Mainers in thick of vital task: removing oil | The Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram

Mainers in thick of vital task: removing oil | The Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram.

Dine Out for the Gulf Coast

From June 10-12, 2010, participating restaurants throughout the United States will set aside a portion of profits to help those directly affected by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and to support the long-term restoration of the treasured coast.

Click here to learn more.

Auburn doctors return from Haiti | Lewiston Sun Journal

Dr. Michael Regan met the girl — 14 years old, bright-eyed and sweet — in a hospital tent filled with flies and patients. Her lower leg had been crushed during Haiti’s January earthquake. She’d received treatment afterward, but in the nonsterile medical facility an infection had set in. Regan changed the pins in her leg, cleaned out the infection, gave her antibiotics. In the United States she could have had surgery in a state-of-the-art facility and would have been fine.

Not in Haiti. Regan predicted her leg will have to be amputated within a year. And there’s nothing the Auburn orthopedic surgeon could do for her — or for so many others in the very same tent.

“Oh, God, I can remember them all. There were so many of them. I’m a softy for kids, though,” he said. “I would have taken that kid in a heartbeat. If I could have found a way to get her here, she would be here.”

Regan returned from a stint in Haiti in March, one of three doctors with Central Maine Orthopaedics in Auburn to go. The doctors — Regan, Jeffrey Bush and David Brown — each spent a week in the impoverished country, taking turns away from their orthopedic practice this spring so while one was in Haiti two others could cover patients in Auburn.

Click on the link for the rest of today’s story by Lindsay Tice in the Lewiston Sun Journal.

NWS says tornados touched down in Vt. and Maine | Bangor Daily News

NWS says tornados touched down in Vt. and Maine – Bangor Daily News.

Solution for Gulf of Mexico oil spill

We should plug the oil spill with BP executives. It might not actually stop the spill, but it sure would be some justice.

Maine oil booms on the way to help Gulf spill | The Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram

Maine oil booms on the way to help Gulf spill | The Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram.

Maine emergency services workers lauded | Bangor Daily News

Emergency services workers lauded – Bangor Daily News.

Maine Friends for Haiti holding ‘raffle’ to benefit Haiti

Maine Friends of Haiti, a group working to get aid to Haiti, is holding a raffle of sorts to spur more giving to the island nation.

Mary Doyle of the group asked that I post a link to the YouTube video that tells of the Maine people and groups that have traveled to help the earthquake-ravaged nation or have given in other ways, from coin drives, school plays, benefit concerts to art sales, solar panels and used sails donated for shelters.

The video also tells of the Maine-Haiti Statewide $1,000 Map Challenge Raffle. If I understand the raffle correctly, the name of each of Maine’s towns and cities is listed on a map and for the name of the community to be highlighted, just one person has to indicate that they have done something , anything for Haiti relief. That person then gets a ticket for the raffle. The ticket’s are not for sale; you get them by doing something for Haiti.

“You have to do something for Haiti to earn it,” according to the Maine Friends of Haiti website. “It’s a raffle that recognizes the caring nature of Mainers. It’s a raffle that challenges every town and city in Maine to get involved.”

Also – and I’ve e-mailed Ms. Doyle about this and I’ll update the information if I am completely off the mark – the winner of the raffle gets to pick which agency helping Haiti gets the $1,000. The winner doesn’t get a prize, per se, simply the pleasure of picking a nonprofit to get the $1,000.

Anyway, below is the link to the video and Maine Friends of Haiti website address.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4zi_c-zI4o

www.mainefriendsofhaiti.org

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Mainers call for an end to offshore drilling | The Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram

Mainers call for an end to offshore drilling | The Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram.

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Lewiston church group returns from mission trip to Haiti | Lewiston Sun Journal

LEWISTON — For two days after he returned from Haiti, Peter Geiger had trouble talking about his experience.

It was too emotional. Too intense. Simply too difficult to put into words.

“It was overwhelming,” he said.

Geiger had spent days as part of a rubble brigade, passing one bucket of debris after another down a line of volunteers working in 100-degree heat to clear a collapsed building that once housed a church and school. He had walked through the streets of a neighborhood built on trash, its water tainted brown. He had handed out soccer balls to children whose last play area was a sewer.

“Until you’re physically down there and you see it, smell it, hear it, it’s hard to describe,” Geiger said. “I knew it would be an emotional experience, but I didn’t realize, particularly until I came back, how emotionally I was affected by it. I’ve always been passionate about helping people, but this is a whole other level of need.”

Click on the link for the rest of today’s story by Lindsay Tice in the Lewiston Sun Journal. The story is accompanied by photos and video.

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