Young, but still remember Even though I was only 10 years old at the time I still remember the flood of 1987 like it was yesterday. We had been released from school early in the day due to the fact that the city did not want to jeopardize the safety of its local students who had to cross the Augusta bridges to get home. When I arrived home my mother asked if I wanted to go down to the river banks to take a look at the awesome power that the Kennebec river had unleashed on its neighboring towns. I remember that we parked far away from the river and walked down to the Father Curran bridge only to find that they had closed the bridge to traffic. My mother asked a fellow onlooker why it was closed. They told us that the fuel tanks from a nearby business had become dislodged and were expected to be floating down the river at any moment.

What happened next I will never forget. Because the river was all the way up to the bottom of the bridge it was constantly demolishing anything that came down the river that was still afloat. First we saw a small section of a house floating up to the bridge still intact. After it slammed into the north side of the bridge with a loud crash the only thing that came out on the other side was the floor of the house with just a toilet attached!

Then came the fuel barrels!! There were two of them coming towards the bridge at great speed and soon two police officers began to drive people back away from the water for fear that they would explode. The "barrels" were actually huge tanks of fuel. As they hit the side of the bridge it sounded like thunder. But instead of them just sweeping under the bridge like most other debris they just rolled against the side of the bridge for several minutes. Finally they submersed under the bridge and popped up on the other side like a couple of submarines coming to the surface. Luckily there was no explosion and no one was hurt.

After that, we left the river but not without that memory burned into my mind for ever. That flood was one of the most powerful and dangerous disasters I've ever witnessed and I hope that the people of Augusta never have to endure another natural disaster of its kind. One thing we should all remember is that things like this could get worse over the years if we don't change our fuel consumption patterns.

As global warming begins to be recognized more and more as an actual threat to our environment we need to remember events like the flood of '87 and how much damage rising waters can cause.

Maybe those barrels floating down the river all those years ago was just Mother Nature's way of giving us all a hint that we need to do away with oil all together.

Samuel Boynton

Augusta