What towns in Maine are free from flood risk? (Portland: home, buy)

[RiverBird]

My daughter and her spouse are still looking to move to Maine, they are self employed. They are doing a lot of research about many things including info on what cities and towns are in a flood risk area.

They will definitely be moving to a place within a city or town (NOT Portland however--maybe Waterville or Augusta or Bangor)--not the suburbs or rural.

Are there any in-town locations well away from the kinds of streams and creeks (and of course rivers) that can potentially flash flooding?

Thanks for any info.

[Northern Maine Land Man]

All Maine towns have residential areas outside any flood plains. Most towns have no flood plain at all.

That said, Augusta has buildings designed to be flooded. Electrical outlets are high up off the floors and the interior walls are unharmed by flooding.

[399083453]

Flood free? Not really many flood areas in Maine.

Just buy a place on the highest hill you can find. Stay away from lower elevation properties.

[mainebrokerman]

i've lived in a flood plane for over 18 yrs and have never had to leave the house, because of flooding

most maine towns don't get flooded

[spose]

I have to interject here. Don't forget ice jams during midwinter/January thaws, as well as in the spring. I recall my family leaving my childhood home as a precaution at least overnight more than once due to ice jams and flooding. Of course, there was a river just beyond our backyard. Roads adjacent to rivers get flooded on occasion, also. But I'm not aware of entire towns being flooded.

I suppose I should also add that I'm talking about basements getting flood water, not climbing-on-your-roof-to-escape type flooding!

[RiverBird]

Originally Posted by spose

I have to interject here. Don't forget ice jams during midwinter/January thaws, as well as in the spring. I recall my family leaving my childhood home as a precaution at least overnight more than once due to ice jams and flooding. Of course, there was a river just beyond our backyard. Roads adjacent to rivers get flooded on occasion, also. But I'm not aware of entire towns being flooded.

I suppose I should also add that I'm talking about basements getting flood water, not climbing-on-your-roof-to-escape type flooding!

Thanks for the responses.

I read that towns along the Kennebec from Augusta south (Halowell, Gardiner, etc) have gone under water or been flooded to some extent in various times. Someone posted on another thread something about GArdiner downtown being completely under water with Hannaford food shelves flooded (?) So that's the kind of question--which towns are at risk for something like this?

[Maineah]

I've seen the downtown area of Yarmouth flooded where they tried to rescue town records by boat.
It was a drainage problem which has since been addressed. Seek high ground and you'll never see flooding. Common sense will tell you that the closer you are to a river or a stream the more likely you'll experience flooding. Our approach road floods over sometimes if we get 5-6 inches of rain in one day. It's just a drainage problem where the culverts are not big enough to handle the excess flow.
We have to pump out our cellar if we get more than three inches of rain. You just learn to put things on pallets and keep the pump plugged in!

[RiverBird]

Originally Posted by Maineah

I've seen the downtown area of Yarmouth flooded where they tried to rescue town records by boat.
It was a drainage problem which has since been addressed. Seek high ground and you'll never see flooding. Common sense will tell you that the closer you are to a river or a stream the more likely you'll experience flooding. Our approach road floods over sometimes if we get 5-6 inches of rain in one day. It's just a drainage problem where the culverts are not big enough to handle the excess flow.
We have to pump out our cellar if we get more than three inches of rain. You just learn to put things on pallets and keep the pump plugged in!

How has this spring been in terms of flooding in different areas of Maine?

[mollysmiles]

I think it's true that it's unlikely an entire Maine town would be at risk for flooding. I wonder if maybe your daughter and her spouse are approaching this backward. It would be much easier to find an area of Maine that they like, then look within that area for flood risks. When I was in college the downtown area of Old Town flooded horribly due to the river, but that is the ONLY area of Old Town that did--it would be unfortunate to discount an entire area simply because a four block area is close to a river. See my point?

[Maineah]

Originally Posted by newenglandgirl

How has this spring been in terms of flooding in different areas of Maine?

Average. The places that usually flood flooded mostly due to ice jams. We didn't have much runoff from snow cover but we did get some January and February rains. There were not many major floods though. Like mollysmiles said the topography in Maine does not really lend itself to major flooding. There are too many hills.