While town officials continue to compile damage estimates from back-to-back storms – one on Wednesday, Jan. 10, and the other on Saturday, Jan. 13 – residents and business owners around Lincoln County are reeling from the destruction.
According to Maury Prentiss, Lincoln County Emergency Management Agency director, the state of Maine has received nearly 500 damage reports from businesses up and down the coastline.
Prentiss himself has received over 100 reports from Lincoln County residents.
“Some of this stuff will take awhile. There are only so many people that can go out and give estimates,” Prentiss said.
There were a few factors that made the storm so devastating, according to Prentiss, but above all it was bad timing.
“It was a high tide compiled with 2-3 feet of storm surge, plus the additional component of 70 mph winds, gusts of almost 80 from the southwest, it was the waves, all of those things that caused the damage, it wasn’t just flooding,” Prentiss said.
The Jan. 13 storm was less intense, due to lower winds, but some of the roads and other structures along the coast that were already weakened from the first storm took further damage, Prentiss said.
“This sort of coastal damage is something that states like Florida are used to, not Maine,” Prentiss said. “We’re going into unfamiliar territory.”
Mark Zaccadelli, owner of Ocean’s Edge Marine Construction, helped spearhead cleanup in New Harbor starting Friday, Jan. 12 after receiving a phone call from municipal officers of the town of Bristol asking for help.
Zaccadelli said between his crew, local lobstermen Jason and Nathan Lorde, Lee and Dale Moore, Hagar Enterprises Inc., and many more, they were able to pull out 38 truckloads of debris from the harbor.
“Really proud of the community,” Zaccadelli said. “Everyone came together and came through.”
Amongst the debris, Zaccadelli said he pulled out around five sections of wharf and three boat and fish houses from the harbor.
“I feel for the families,” he said. “I hope I don’t see this happen again.”
One of those fish houses and wharfs belonged to the Osier family in New Harbor, a family that’s been there since they moved from Louds Island in 1925.
According to Don Osier, who lives near the landing, their wharf and fish house were built in 1953 when his father needed a place to lobster from. Their fish house was right next to the New Harbor town landing.
Osier said the structures ended up in the pucker brush along the left side of the town landing in the storm of 1978, but it wasn’t significantly damaged again until the Jan. 10 storm. In the Jan. 13 storm, it washed off of its pilings and into the back of the harbor.
“We tried to tie it down after the first storm, and Mark Zaccadelli even cut the wharf in half so there was less leverage against the tide,” Osier said. “But the surge took it off its pilings the next day.”
During the clean up on Sunday, Jan. 14, Osier said he and his brother decided that the fish house wasn’t salvable and Zaccadelli took it apart in the harbor.
“It was a difficult decision,” Osier said.
Jim and Beth Scammon, who owned a wharf and fish house on the northern side of New Harbor, suffered a total loss of the structure, built in 1971, in the Jan. 10 storm.
Shaw’s Fish & Lobster Wharf, a commercial fishing wharf and popular seasonal restaurant, lost an iconic bait shed positioned on the eastern side of the wharf and sustained damage to pilings and boards.
New Harbor Co-op lost a few pilings and sustained other structural damage, according to owner Mike Prior. Members of other fishing co-op’s in the area reached out to Prior to offer their docks while he rebuilt, he said.
“We have over 25 fishermen working out of here,” Prior said. “Those are whole families who depend on this dock for their livelihood.”
The village of Chamberlain sustained significant damage to Route 32 and Long Cove Road in the Jan. 10 storm. As of Wednesday, Jan. 17, Route 32 is still closed to through traffic.
According to South Bristol Select Board member Adam Rice, South Bristol lost over 35 docks and wharfs, both residential and commercial.
Mary Brotherton, general manager of Osier’s Wharf, said “no one fared well down here.” During both storms, water levels spilled over the bridge in The Gut, to which Osier’s Wharf sits adjacent.
“Water went through one side and came out the other,” Brotherton said.
Rice said that the town has put a demolition dumpster down by the town landing to give South Bristol residents a place to put storm debris and help with cleanup efforts.
According to Margie Mormen, the South Bristol town office’s administrative assistant, despite the flooding of the bridge in The Gut, the structure took no damage.
Downtown Damariscotta’s municipal parking lot and ground-level businesses endured flooding during both storms.
Adam Reny, co-owner of Renys, said that Reny Underground didn’t take on any more water than what could be cleaned up with a mop.
“We were lucky, we’re slightly elevated from the parking lot,” Reny said.
Other businesses took on more water, such as the building housing Bred in the Bone and Puffin’s Nest along Main Street.
According to Bred in the Bone co-owner Warren Busteed, the first storm brought 2 feet of water into the basement where there prep kitchen is located.
“We actually made out okay,” Busteed said. “We lost a little equipment, but it doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things.”
In the second storm, however, Busteed said the restaurant was much better prepared and expressed his gratitude to Damariscotta’s fire and police departments.
“The guys from the fire department and police department were outstanding in their help,” Busteed said.
According to Damariscotta Fire Chief John Roberts, most of the department’s efforts were in preventing electrical fires due to flooding and water removal in the downtown.
“It’s rather difficult to have two storms that close in proximity,” Roberts said.
According to Jes Stevens, the emergency management agency director for Monhegan Island, the island sustained some damage, but she felt it could’ve been worse. The wharf flooded during both storms, but during the first, the flooding moved the freight shed closer to the centerline of the wharf.
“All things considered, we did fine, no one got hurt,” Stevens said.
Back on shore in Bristol, Town Administrator Rachel Bizzaro said the town office will be accepting donations via check for two separate issues in the town – one for community members of Bristol that were significantly impacted during the storm and the other for repairs needed at Bristol Parks.
Bizzaro said that all donations should be sent to the town office and the check memo should specify what the donation is going toward.
Municipal officers at town offices around the county are urging residents to document and submit their damages as one of the best ways in which they can help.
According to a post on Lincoln County Emergency Management Agency’s Facebook, the submission date for damage claims from the Jan. 10 storm need to be made by Jan. 18. Submissions for the Jan. 13 storm need to be submitted by Monday, Jan. 22.
Individuals and households can submit at shorturl.at/ajzP1. Business and agriculture producers can submit their damage assessments at shorturl.at/chuG5.
