By Nate Jones

Staff Writer 

    Rather than celebrating the Patriots’ Day holiday, this upcoming Monday most Mainers will shudder in remembrance of the storm that caused a total of $33 million in damages to businesses and homes across the state last year.

“The effects of this storm will be felt long after the rain has stopped falling and the wind has stopped blowing,” Gov. John Baldacci said on April 18, 2007.

Baldacci’s prediction has largely come true during the past year, as many communities are still waiting to receive federal funding to fix damages caused by the torrential rainfall and winds which built waves to over 20 feet high during extreme high tides. 

“It was the first day in nine years my husband didn’t go to work,” South Portland resident and Willard Beach Neighborhood Association’s member Theresa Wiper said. 

Wiper said the Association’s Beach Committee has been working with students from Southern Maine Community College (SMCC) and representatives from the Maine Geological Survey organization to monitor areas of the beach that are particularly susceptible to erosion damage since the storm. 

Ecology professor Charles Gregory and a handful of his students make the short walk to Willard beach at the lowest tide of each month to measure the existing dunes. The data they collect is then sent to the Maine Geological Survey office, where geologists analyze the size and location of the dunes as part of an ongoing shoreline monitoring program. While Gregory said it is still too early to say if the dunes at Willard Beach are rebounding, there is no doubt the beach has changed since last year. 

Maine Geological Survey Senior Geologist Peter Slovinsky said it is not uncommon for beaches to undergo seasonal changes. He said typically beaches lose sand during the more turbulent winter months and then build dunes back up again in the summer. Last year’s Patriots’ Day storm upset most of the natural balance of the South Portland coastline including Willard Beach, he said.

“The Patriots’ Day storm was a significant event for Willard Beach, with up to almost 40 feet of erosion,” Slovinsky said. 

Using a Real Time Kinematic Global Positioning system to compare the horizontal and vertical differences between sand dunes in November 2006 and April 2007, the Maine Geological Survey created a Web site to portray the devastation done to Willard Beach. 

Wiper said the Beach Committee has been working to replace the rope fencing and several warning signs washed away during the storm. She said establishing boundaries and raising public awareness of the fragile nature of the dunes is important to help them rebound. 

“We’re not taking the beach away, just increasing public knowledge,” Wiper said.

Willard Beach is not eligible for any FEMA funding since it is considered a natural beach, Wiper said.

Nearby Bug Light Park is still waiting for crews to repair the pavement walkways and riprap shoreline that were washed away during the storm’s two extreme high tides said Public Works Park Superintendent John Switzer.

“We’re in the process of putting the work to bid,” Public Works Supervisor Dave Gaudet said. 

Gaudet said several large boulders will be placed at the shoreline, which could help deflect waves’ destructive forces should another “thirty-year storm” decide to roll through Casco Bay. 

South Portland City Finance Director Rob Coombs said the estimated total damages in South Portland was almost $325,000, with approximately $116,000 in damages to the Bug Light Park alone. The city has waited to rebuild the walkways until FEMA funding is available for the project, Switzer said. 

Cape Elizabeth Public Works Director Robert Malley said the town has already finished most of the cleanup from the storm, including recently disposing several trees on Shore Road, which fell during a microburst shortly after the storm. 

“They’re really the last piece of the puzzle,” he said. 

FEMA covered all of nearly $100,000 in damages around Cape Elizabeth, which included rebuilding a section of Seaview Avenue that washed away. Several large boulders have been placed on nearby Cliff House Beach in hopes of preventing damage in the future, but Malley said he was skeptical of their effectiveness.

“You can’t build your infrastructure for a storm like that,” he said. “Six inches of rain in 24 hours and extreme high tides are going to do damage.”

Scarborough Public Works Director Mike Shaw said the areas most affected by the high winds and torrential rains were a section of the Eastern Trail and the seawall at Higgins Beach.

“We had a lot of washouts, mostly due to the Nonesuch River,” he said. 

While road crews managed to repair many of the smaller washouts in town immediately following the storm, Shaw said applying for FEMA funding for the Eastern Trail has been an ongoing process. 

A Higgins Beach Seawall committee formed by the town council in January is scheduled to present possible reconstruction options for the seawall at a May 7 meeting.

“We’ve looked at everything from a ‘do-nothing’ approach to the stepped concrete seawall, or a new riprap wall engineered to handle the level of exposure,” Shaw said. “There really is a science to that kind of thing.”

Scarborough Fire Chief Michael Thurlow said the town could receive nearly $575,000 in FEMA funding for repairs incurred during last year’s storm. 

Contact Nate Jones by calling 282-4337 or email news@scarboroughleader.com.