Business owner Chris Hole said it won’t be enough to simply restore his storm-damaged wharf to the way it was prior to Jan. 13. Local storms are getting stronger, so he will have to rebuild stronger.
“That will be the biggest challenge … to rebuild it so that (future storms) can hit it and not destroy it,” said Hole, who owns Henry Allen’s Seafood on Lookout Point.
Local officials, business owners and residents say Harpswell must prepare for increasingly powerful winter storms like the ones that struck coastal Maine on Jan. 10 and 13, as climate change continues its rapid warming of the Gulf of Maine.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, sea surface temperatures in the Gulf of Maine are warming 99% faster than those across the rest of the planet. Warming waters not only expand, but they also lend added moisture and energy to the atmosphere that can boost rainfall, winds and ocean surge during storms.
Harpswell leaders have been working since 2016 to assess the town’s vulnerability to climate change and develop mitigation strategies. However, fully implementing those strategies would cost large sums of money Harpswell doesn’t currently have, they said.
“The town is getting a pretty good handle on what needs to be done to address those impacts over the long term,” Town Planner Mark Eyerman said in an interview on Tuesday, Jan. 23. He added that the recent storms didn’t include the 1.5 to 2 feet of sea level rise expected by 2050.
“And so, to me, the question is, what do you do about funding the necessary improvements?” Eyerman said. “Or do you say, ‘No, we’re not going to do that, and we’re going to hope the state makes money available?’ That’s sort of the next step, if you will.”
Another open question is whether town officials would be willing to employ heavy-handed tactics such as declaring eminent domain on surrounding properties to raise a road or bridge to better protect it from intensifying storms.
“We have a very strong property rights ethic in Maine,” said Mary Ann Nahf, chair of Harpswell’s Resiliency and Sustainability Committee. “If somebody says, ‘We need to take your land,’ well, yeah, where am I supposed to go? And I’ve had this land for generations.”
More storms expected
Nahf said her committee’s focus is on Harpswell’s public infrastructure, and figuring out what the town must do to protect it from future climate change impacts. It has secured state grants to fund engineering studies on the town’s most vulnerable public roads.
For example, in November, Harpswell received a $50,000 grant from a state climate change program to design improvements for two roads where flooding could cut off residents from their homes and fishermen from town landings and wharves.
On Bailey Island’s Abner Point Road, engineers are looking at an area near the Mackerel Cove Town Landing and Lubee Drive. On Bethel Point Road in Cundy’s Harbor, they are assessing a bridge over Hen Cove.
The committee is working on another grant application to study the Dingley Island bridge and Lowell’s Cove Road, she said.
“Interestingly, these were all roads that flooded over the (Jan. 13) weekend,” Nahf said.
An apparent trend has developed over the past few years, she said, as storms in early January have consistently brought rain rather than snow to Harpswell. Nahf said she expects that trend to bring more coastal storms like the recent ones.
“This is going to happen more frequently, so we as community members need to figure out how we’re going to deal with it,” she said.
At a meeting of the Maine Climate Council on Tuesday, Jan. 23, Maine Emergency Management Agency Director Pete Rogers said “multi-hazard events” that include rain, wind, storm surge, flooding and power outages are now more common in the state than traditional blizzards or windstorms, according to Spectrum News.
“Homeowners and businesses now need to weigh the consequences of rebuilding in the same location versus building higher and stronger or even relocating,” Spectrum quoted Rogers as saying. “Any reconstruction in flood-prone and disaster-prone areas needs to be given some serious thought.”
Flood waters submerge the boat ramp and causeway at Lookout Point, Harpswell Neck, Jan. 13. (Jessica Picard photo)
Pay now or later?
Eyerman, the town planner, said Harpswell has yet to grapple with how to fund the road, bridge and public land improvements that would help stave off future damage to infrastructure from warming-fueled storms.
Five years ago, a town study priced needed improvements to the Lookout Point causeway and boat launch at $180,000. Eyerman said the cost would now likely be $300,000.
Another study estimated the cost of needed improvements to Garrison Cove Town Landing at $300,000 to $350,000, which Eyerman said is now probably more like $500,000.
“The studies are good,” he said. “The question is, where does the money come from to do things?”
But not spending money on climate mitigation now could increase the risk of even higher expenditures down the road, as evidenced by Maine’s recent weather-related disasters.
During a rainstorm on Dec. 18 that flooded three of Maine’s large river systems, the state incurred an estimated $20 million in damage to public infrastructure alone, Gov. Janet Mills said in a formal request asking President Joe Biden to issue a major disaster declaration to help 10 Maine counties recover from that storm. Businesses suffered countless millions more in damages from inland flooding.
Still, Harpswell Select Board Chair Kevin Johnson said he doesn’t see the town shelling out big money to take anyone’s property or make drastic changes to local infrastructure. He noted that the recommended changes to the Garrison Cove property wouldn’t have prevented flooding in the recent storms anyway.
“Frankly, there’s not a whole lot you can do about it,” he said, other than property owners raising their houses and wharves a few feet higher.
And over two-thirds of Harpswell’s roads are private, Johnson added, for which the town bears no responsibility.
Norm McAvoy, who owns property at the end of Keyes Lane near Lowell’s Cove, said his large wharf was washed away completely in the Jan. 13 storm. He estimated it will cost “multi-hundreds” of thousands of dollars to replace it.
“I spoke to (town Code Enforcement Officer) Tim Clark, and he said I am able to rebuild, and I plan to rebuild, because that was one of the allures of the property,” said McAvoy, 63, adding that his family has had ties to the area since the late 1800s.
McAvoy said he doesn’t expect to get any help from insurance.
Even for those with the cash, rebuilding Harpswell’s lost and damaged wharves will likely take a long time, local waterfront advocates said, in part because skilled wharf builders and the required heavy equipment are in short supply.
New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association founder and CEO Jerry Leeman III said there already was a yearslong waitlist for wharf construction in Maine before January’s storms, and now it’s going to be even longer.
“If you’re a wharf builder right now, you’re sittin’ pretty,” Mackerel Cove lobsterman Craig Rogers said.
Hole, the Henry Allen’s Seafood owner, said the loss of so many local wharves is bound to create economic hardship for many people in the area.
“We’re supposed to get going in three months,” Hole said about his seasonal business, “and to be honest, I’m blessed that I at least have this much left (of the wharf) to try to limp by. Other folks, they’ve got nothing. Their whole wharf’s in the cove. I feel horrible for them.”
Have a comment or news tip? Email J. Craig Anderson at craig@harpswellanchor.org.
