With winter weather raging across the United States in recent days, one Maine resident who had seen it all found there was something new that days of pounding rain could bring.
On Wednesday, Cristina Alden of Owls Head, Maine, recorded what started out as an Unidentified Floating Object bobbing across the bay.
Then she realized it was a cabin that had spent years on dry land and had washed away into the water.
“I’ve never seen anything like this before!” she said, according to WABI-TV in Bangor, Maine.
😲Maine Woman captures video of floating cabin in winter storm: ‘I was shocked’ https://t.co/CPNRXgDHfv
— WFSB Channel 3 (@WFSBnews) January 11, 2024
“And I looked out and it was raining so hard, I thought it was a boat that had slipped its mooring. And went out and saw that it was that little cabin and couldn’t believe it so I started filming. I was shocked!” she said.
“I couldn’t believe it because that little cottage, it, it’s in the middle of the island. It’s not a big island and it landed in one piece right on somebody’s lawn,” she said.
“I never know when I look out this window what I’m going to see but I never expected to see a house floating by!”
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Driven by a storm surge, water levels Wednesday afternoon hit 14 feet in Owls Head, a coastal town in southern Maine, according to the National Weather Service. That topped the flood stage of 12 feet, according to Fox Weather.
After days of rain soaking the Northeast, a big chill gripped much of the U.S. by Sunday.
The National Weather Service estimated that 95 million Americans were under warnings or advisories that wind chills would go below zero, according to The Associated Press.
Parts of the South were expected to receive snow, while parts of Montana and the Dakotas were facing wind chills that could dip to minus 70 degrees Fahrenheit.
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Unstable weather and the possibility of snow squalls were forecast for eastern Pennsylvania and parts of northern New Jersey and Delaware, with warnings from the weather service that squalls could bring “near whiteout conditions and a quick one-half inch of snow in just 10 to 15 minutes.”
Areas in Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee were predicted to get four to six inches of snow.
Near Whiteout conditions just south of Buffalo NY. Snowfall rates of 2+ inch per hour occurring within this band. Expect this to continue throughout the day. We’re live on YouTube covering this event! #nywx @NWSBUFFALO @foxweather @ReedTimmerAccu https://t.co/BzihANbvEI pic.twitter.com/leHKnus35j
— Storm Chaser Garrett Thompson (@GarrettT_WX) January 14, 2024
Buffalo’s weather hit the national news because the scheduled Sunday NFL game between the Buffalo Bills and Pittsburgh Steelers was postponed to Monday amid forecasts of one to two feet of snow and wind gusts that could top 50 mph.
“They’re expected to see both the intense snowfall, but also the extreme wind,” said Zack Taylor, a National Weather Service meteorologist in College Park, Maryland, according to the AP. “That’s why they’re expecting to see near-blizzard conditions at times.”
Sunday’s weather was so intense that the snow shovelers hired by the Bills to clean out Highmark Stadium were told to stay home Sunday to obey a driving ban in the area and report on Monday, according to Sports Illustrated.
Shovelers who help clear snow will be paid $20 an hour but are asked to bring their own shovels.
