SOUTH PORTLAND (WGME) — One year after one of the worst coastal storms to ever hit Maine, some communities are still recovering.
The storm saw the highest tide ever recorded in Greater Portland: more than 14 and a half feet. In the year since, there has been significant cleanup and investments in the state’s infrastructure.
On Jan. 13, 2024, South Portland’s historic fish shacks were swept out to sea.
“Can’t deny the great loss of that beautiful view,” Paul Naso, who walks on Willard Beach daily, said.
The storm was a sad goodbye for admirers, as the plans to rebuild the shacks were also swept away, due to federal shoreline zoning requirements. In their place, the city plans to build a historical marker.
The same waves that swept away the shacks also threatened nearby homeowners, like John Murphy.
“I had to put big, huge equipment straps around that shack and tie them to those big pine trees,” Murphy said, pointing to a shed on his property. “It was floating in the water, there was two feet of water under that, and that thing was floating in the air.”
South Portland has repaired infrastructure beaten up last January, with a larger focus on preparation. The city is launching federally funded projects to protect the shoreline and build more resilient structures.
“What are the physical things we can do with the way we build buildings and the way we build infrastructure that allow them to be more adaptable and resilient when we have more water?” South Portland Planning Director Milan Nevajda said.
The city is also planning to “scrape” the dunes at Willard Beach to even out displaced sand.
Murphy watched several feet of dune in front of his home wash away, and he wants to see more sand added to the beach, through practices like dredging. Without it, he worries he’ll lose his home.
“It’s not just saving these eight or nine houses in the front; it’s saving a neighborhood. Once we lose these houses in the front, we go to the next row and the next row,” said Murphy.
Nevajda says one of the city’s projects will assess the possibility of a buffer to deflect the ocean waves. And as ocean levels rise, he says mitigation efforts will continue to adapt.
For more information on South Portland’s storm mitigation efforts, visit its coastal resilience webpage.