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W W W. M A I N E B I Z . B I Z 19 J U N E 1 , 2 0 2 0 F O C U S L E W I S T O N / A U B U R N / W E S T E R N M A I N E then nothing happens. It's human nature to let down your guard." On April 15, a digester at the Androscoggin Mill in Jay exploded and Rumford Hospital, the closest to the mill, was jolted into action. "We heard about the explosion within moments," Wright says. e hos- pital deployed its emergency response and got the ER ready. e explosion happened at lunchtime, and mill workers were socially distancing by eating in their cars. No one was injured. "at was a reminder to us, oh by the way, there's other things going on besides COVID," Wright says. Watershed moment While CMMC has never had more than 10 patients in the COVID unit at a time, Alexander says the system did exactly what it should have. "at's how public health is sup- posed to work," he says. "If you try to get ahead of things so it doesn't become a big threat, you end up, in the rearview mirror, with 'Why did they make such a big deal of that?' e reason is because we don't want it to become a really big problem." He says CMH, as well as the state, has done an effective job. "e bottom line is, we had prepared around a worst- case scenario and we were very fortunate that we never approached it," he says. CMH is now ready for whatever comes its way. "We're prepared to take on full capacity, that's how we designed our process," Alexander says. "We're doing that because there has to be a recogni- tion that the infection is still present in our community, we know that with certainty." Kenny-Lynch, who in January watched the blue dots spread across a graph while everyone else was going about their normal lives, agrees. "As an epidemiologist, I feel like I can control what happens within these four walls," she says. "What really frightens me, as a member of the community, are things outside of the hospital that I don't have control of." Maureen Milliken, Mainebiz senior writer, can be reached at mmilliken @ mainebiz.biz We are a community of selfless generosity. Kindness is spreading. See and share more stories at bangor.com/spreadkindness Scarborough, Maine 1 woman. 1 sewing machine. 400 masks and counting. It came at us pretty quickly. We really thought we were going to be overrun. — Sheldon Stevenson director of emergency medicine, Central Maine Healthcare