The bell house in Pemaquid Point Lighthouse Park in Bristol after it took significant damage in the Jan. 10, 2024 storm. In preparation for the Jan. 13, 2024 storm, park officials cleaned the debris, moved the bell to the back corner of the structure, and put up wooden beams for additional support. The white picket fence surrounding the fishermans museum was knocked down as well. (Johnathan Riley photo)
One year after back-to-back storms devastated Lincoln County’s coastline, affected residents, businesses, and towns are still rebuilding and preparing for the future.
“It feels good to be on the other side of it,” said Shelley Gallagher, Bristol Parks and Recreation director. “It’s been interesting; going through a lot of pictures (the storms) really were that bad. It kind of brings it all back.”
On Jan. 10 and Jan. 13, 2024, Lincoln County’s riparian and coastal residents withstood the impact of storms that brought strong winds of 70 mph, rain, and historic flooding. The storms uprooted trees and damaged or destroyed piers, docks, buildings, and sand dunes.
In March 2024, President Joe Biden declared the storms – which caused Maine $70 million in damages – a natural disaster, according to the White House website.
Flooding occurred inland as well. Twelve miles upriver in Damariscotta, the tide submerged the municipal parking lot and flooded nearby businesses and basements.
According to Damariscotta Harbormaster Mike Herz, high tides during the 2024 storm in Damariscotta peaked at 9:51 a.m. on Jan. 10, when it reached 10.6 feet, and at 12:20 p.m. on Jan. 13, when it reached 11.43 feet.
Gallagher said the anniversary of the destructive weather events invoked memories of how intense the storms were, and she feels grateful the repairs to Pemaquid Beach Park and Pemaquid Point Lighthouse Park have been completed.
Wind and storm surge damaged siding on the fisherman’s museum by yanking up the fencing on the south side of the building. With its cement anchors still attached, the fencing was thrown against the building by the waves.
The bell house, located at Pemaquid Point Lighthouse Park, had its eastern, ocean-facing wall knocked in by a wave that struck overnight on Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2024 into Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2024 with no witnesses, according to Gallagher.
However, according to the readings of the lighthouse weather station, Gallagher said it’s possible the wave hit during one of two notable gusts of 70 mph winds that occurred between 4-5 a.m. on Jan. 10 2024.
“The waves were coming in so hard, it just knocked everything in,” Gallagher said.
Salvaging materials and reinforcing the historic bell house, ultimately preserved the building’s integrity through the second storm, according to Gallagher
“Almost all of our success and all of our success in repairs was because of those first three days,” she said. “Had we not put in that corner beam piece, had we not removed everything and put in the diagonal slats, had we not taken all the fence piece, essentially set us up for success to be able to rebuild as fast as we did.”
Gallagher said staff was able to save all but five boards from the white picket fence.
Elsewhere on the peninsula, roads such as Route 32 in Chamberlain were washed out and closed for six weeks until they could be repaired. Pemaquid Loop Road, West Strand Road, Fish Point Road, Long Cove Road, and Back Shore Road also sustained washout damage from the storms.
Up the peninsula from Pemaquid Point, in New Harbor, one of the area’s most affected harbors, approximately 304.8 tons, or 609,600 pounds, of material was removed, the approximate weight of the long-range Boeing 747 airplane, according to Bristol Town Administrator Rachel Bizarro.
Bristol’s Ocean’s Edge Marine Construction owner Mark Zaccadelli, one of the businesses that pulled out debris after the storms, said the storms in January were hard to see.
“It was upsetting,” he said. “I felt for the people watching their houses and boat houses float into the harbor.”
Over the last year, Zaccadelli said between 50% and 60% of his company’s projects were related to structures damaged during the storms.
When rebuilding piers, Zaccadelli recommends raising the height by 2 feet to property owners, but also not to overcomplicate the process.
“It’s a pier, we’re going to get other storms,” he said.
Those looking to rebuild should consider anchoring the pier properly to the ground and stabilizing the shoreline to prevent erosion and ensure longevity of the rebuild, he said.
According to Island Institute’s website, $1,101,047.45 of aid to rebuild from The Working Waterfront Resilience Grant Program was dispersed to Lincoln County businesses affected by the storms, including Osier’s Seafood in South Bristol, Community Shellfish in Bremen, New Harbor Land Co-op in New Harbor, Pemaquid Fisherman’s Wharf in Pemaquid, Boothbay Waterfront Preservation in Boothbay, and Round Pond Village Improvement Society in Round Pond.
The website said the program was the single largest investment in storm recovery in Maine history, totaling $21.2 million statewide.
Some structures were a complete loss and will not be rebuilt as they were, such as The Contented Sole’s Pemaquid Harbor location at Fort William Henry Park.
“The building had survived 100 years of storms up until this point,” said Warren Busteed, co-owner of the restaurant. “It was pretty crazy.”
The bar area in the former restaurant was on pilings and the entrance is on land, so when the storm surge came up during the storms, it cracked the concrete flooring of the bar space off of the rest of the foundation, Busteed said.
Busteed and co-owner Beth Polhemus, who leased the building the restaurant was housed in for nearly 20 years from the state of Maine, said representatives from the Bureau of Parks and Lands made it clear the intention isn’t to rebuild the restaurant as it was.
“They’re throwing around a lot of ideas; they’re going to tear down the whole building because structurally it can’t be repaired. Whatever they do it will be new,” he said. “They are not going to have any private business in that location.”
After the storms hit, Busteed and Polhemus made a quick pivot in trying to find a new location for The Contented Sole. Through connections with one of their customers, they were able to establish themselves in New Harbor at the former event center Head of the Harbor on Southside Road.
“We’re pretty lucky to have good customers in the old place and have connections and options to get in (the new place),” he said.
This past year, Busteed said business has been good, but the restaurant is still adjusting to its new home in New Harbor and looking to make some aesthetic changes to incorporate the rustic feel of the former location.
“It really was a lot of work renovating the new place,” he said. “We’re lucky (the storms) happened in January; if it happened in March we wouldn’t have been able to pivot.”
Busteed’s other restaurant in Damariscotta, Bred in the Bone, also sustained damage in the flooding that occurred in the back parking lot during the storm, although significantly less severe.
“We got lucky there,” he said.
The bell house in Pemaquid Point Lighthouse Park on Monday, Jan. 13, a year after historic storms knocked in the eastern facing wall, uprooted the white fence around the museums, and damaged the siding of the building. A ceremony for the completion of the bell house was held in September 2024. (Johnathan Riley photo)
In the last year, an underground 150,000-gallon storm water retention tank was installed under the parking lot and a deployable flood wall was purchased by the town of Damariscotta.
While the renovations are not due to the 2024 storms, they were planned to mitigate the impact of flooding from similar severe weather events.
The flood resiliency plan for the parking lot is modeled after a 100-year storm scenario, which Damariscotta Town Manager Andy Dorr defined as infrastructure that can withstand the flooding that would accompany a 5- or 6-inch rain event within the span of a 12-hour tide change.
Lincoln County Emergency Management Agency Director Emily Huber said Lincoln County EMA is working with towns affected to develop contingency plans for when these events do end up happening again using these storms as what can continue to happen and how to prepare for them compiling a list of resources, such as contractors, to use them better in a time of need.
“Utilizing the contractors better, who (the town) uses to repair their roads, remove debris in a timely manner, it’s just a matter of what they utilized, how they utilized them, are they going to be utilized,” she said.
Huber said that according to a prediction from the National Weather Service, events like the January 2024 storms will continue to happen and the best thing towns and residents can do is prepare.
“The storms are not going to stop and are projected to continue for years to come,” she said. “It was kind of crazy to think this happened, not that we don’t prepare for this, but to see our communities come together so quickly which is what our community does in Lincoln County.”
