Mother Nature went on a rampage in 1987
Experts called it a 500-year flood for the state’s major rivers, including the Sebasticook River in Pittsfield and Winslow and the Sandy River in the Farmington area.
Everyone else called it the April Fools’ Day flood.
By the time it was over, 2,100 homes had been flooded; 215 were destroyed and 240 more suffered major damage, according to the Maine Emergency Management Agency.
Hallowell resident Sam Webber was a teacher at Hall-Dale High School at the time. He recruited several students to rescue display cases from a store on Water Street in Hallowell called the Starting Block.
“The water was rising fast and about halfway up the wheels of my pickup truck,” Webber said. “After we managed to move the display cases to my garage, we returned to help transfer items from Boynton’s Market to an AG trailer. The students wanted me to bring my canoe downtown. I did, but felt it was too dangerous to have any of them go with me.”