#TBT VIDEO: 1987 ‘April Fool’s Flood’ In Downtown Bangor

Here we are, Bangor, when the winter temperatures start subsiding and we are reaching a point when April gets warmer and brings in a lot of wet weather.  That wet weather could be rain.  It could be snow.  It could be a mix of both.

Either way, that precipitation is going to become liquid eventually.  Then it's going to glide over the frozen ground and have no where to go but the nearest tributary, which, in Bangor is going to be in the Penobscot River.

What is interesting about where Bangor is on the Penobscot is that lower parts of the river are influenced by the tide of the ocean.  During the spring time this characteristic of the Penobscot can lead to flooding in the Bangor area, especially along the Kenduskeag Stream which meets the Penobscot River in Downtown Bangor.

One other thing we here in the Bangor area anticipate around this time of year is the flooding that happens in Downtown Bangor.

One historic flood year for Downtown Bangor includes the year of 1987, which had fairly normal snowpack and temperatures for the winter season until two back-to-back rain storms hit and caused some pretty destructive flooding.

The video posted on YouTube says that it was filmed April 3, 1987, which shows the flooding the day after the 2nd rain storm pushed through the day prior.

The AP reported about this flood in 2012 as a remembrance of 25th anniversary, calling the flooding event 'The April Fool's Flood' and a 'once in 500 years' kind of flood.