Heavy rain, combined with melting snow and ice, flooded the Kennebec, Androscoggin, Penobscot, and Saco rivers during the week of March 13, 1936. The flood waters raged while rescue and relief work began in communities surrounding the swollen rivers.

The Portland Press Herald and Portland Evening Express, provided the state of Maine with the most comprehensive coverage of the Flood of 1936. Staff photographers covered the unprecedented disaster from land, air, and water, exemplified by this photograph of two men rowing into a garage, which was shot from inside a canoe