We’ve decided to revive the “blog” on our website, which is somewhere to record the stories of survival we have gone through in the short months of January to March 2024. Hopefully, we will also record the changes (for the better) that have sprung up from the wreckage.
January 10th, 2024, unleashed a southwest storm like no other in anyone’s recollection. We had prepared for the usual flooding we receive with most winter storms, picking up boxes of merchandise from the floor of our hardware store, moving things that might get blown off the float, and making sure tools were picked up from the floor and things battened down in the yard. However, we were unprepared for this new moon, high tide, gale-force wind-driven storm surge that developed by mid-day on January 10th. It was gut-wrenching to watch the onslaught of long waves rolling down the Thorofare from the southwest with nothing to slow it down before they smashed into our 169-year-old building. The ocean kept coming, lifting storage buildings and floating them across the yard. Battering our 10-year-old wharf and turning it into an approximation of a skateboard park with half-pipes and wedge ramps. Two hours before high tide, the ocean rose higher in the big shop than the marks on the planer from the “great floods of ‘78”. Higher still than the Christmas Eve storm of 2023, which we thought was the mother of all storms. The wind and storm surge drove the water higher than we ever imagined. It was up to the bottom of the windowsills of the hardware store, which sits slightly lower than the big shop. Inside the store, the water swirled just under the wooden slab tabletop, destroying everything on the lower shelves. The vehicle gas pump was half submerged, and waves crashed over the top of the fuel pump on the wharf.
Once the waters receded, it was heartbreaking to see the devastation. The building that had stood solidly through so many generations of the Brown family was a broken mess for the fourth, fifth, and sixth generations to piece back together. The big shop floor was broken in many places, the heavy pipe bench had crashed down through the broken floor and was resting at a steep angle with only the broken bits of floor keeping it from a mudflat grave. The main door was blocked because the wharf was pushed up about a foot higher than it was previously. The bench that ran the length of the eastern side with its original, memorabilia-covered tool cabinets was completely demolished. A gaping hole remained between the floor and the eastern wall, which was the length of the building, letting ocean water slosh in. Tools had been dropped down into the mudflats under the building; wood, buckets, boxes, and cases of antifreeze littered the wharf outside. It felt and looked like those photos of folks returning to their houses after a tornado had ripped through them.
Within those first quiet moments after the tide receded, accompanied by the sound of dripping water, and with little time to process our grief, we did what our family always does: got to work. First, it was confusing: sorting through what was left, wondering where to make a pile of things that might be saved, piles of trash, and sorting out seaweed. Then the magic began: more and more people arrived, phone calls were made, and dump trucks and pickup trucks magically appeared to be loaded with debris. Many hands moved what was left to higher ground. School kids, grandchildren, family, and friends turned out to help us. The support made all the difference because we were faced with a monumental cleanup and had the added pressure of having only two days before the next storm! It was clear to everyone that the building couldn’t withstand another beating like that in its condition.
January 11th was a miraculous day. So many helping hands turned out to put back the pieces. Former employees turned up from the mainland, neighbors from Vinalhaven came, 80-year-olds and 8-year-olds, and everyone in between moved mountains and helped secure the big shop and clean up the mess. A newspaper crew showed up to cover the story. An abundance of food appeared from island ovens, along with water and storage boxes to fill with salvage, all accompanied by hugs. Fisherman and contractors brought their tools and expertise. Plans were formed, and heavy cinderblocks were loaded into the middle of the building once the floor was reasonably back in place to hold the floor down. Chains held the floor up to the rafters and down to the granite piling. By 11 am on January 13th, with winds gaining momentum by the minute and ocean water sloshing up through the still broken floorboards, the last of the preparations were done, and only the long wait for peak tide remained. For two long hours, we waited to see if our entire heritage would endure. It seems as if the whole town held their collective breath. We watched, and we waited. With eyes laser-focused on the previous high tide marks left on the buildings and the roof ridge for movement, we clung to the hope that this second storm wasn’t quite as powerful as the last. It was a bit less severe; the tide was a good four or five inches less than two days before, and the wind wasn’t quite as strong, but it still left behind damage. More debris filled the wharf and surrounding area, and large chunks of granite pilings moved not only on our building but our neighbors as well. The process of drying out and cleaning up began again.
The Portland Press Herald newspaper had a two-page spread of story with many photos and online. Phone calls from friends and concerned vendors who had heard the news poured in. Every day, we received cards or notes of condolence and support. Friends rallied to help with creating an online fundraising site. Funding goals were met and exceeded within hours. The support was overwhelming. Months after the storms, we still receive checks and online donations to help us rebuild. We are truly thankful for the support. It’s worth noting that we did not have insurance because no insurance agency would touch us, being in the flood zone, being such an old wooden building out over the water, and having a wood stove for heat. While flood insurance is available to us, the costs were outrageous.
Sunday, February 10th…..one month later, a repeat performance by Mother Nature! Here, we faced yet another southwest onslaught, storm surge tides, and rain, and it was a miserable day on all levels. This time, we had a professional team with us! The town of North Haven has just hired engineers to begin looking at our collective waterfront to see if there might be some actions we could take to mitigate the worst of the flooding and storm surges, among numerous other things. This crew wanted to be on the island during the storm to get firsthand knowledge and readings and interview those affected. They came to the shop about an hour and a half before high tide but couldn’t get anywhere close to the buildings as the tide had already flooded the low land near the gas pump. We showed them the spots where the Jan 10th storm had left high tide marks compared to where the tide was then, and frankly, they seemed quite surprised. We met again after the storm to debrief and go over the damages. It’s reassuring to know that they got to experience it and see the extent of the flooding and wind damage with their own eyes. No amount of surveying, photos, and maps can replace real experience.
Fast forward to March 10th (are you beginning to see a pattern here?) A lot of work had been done to the floor of the big shop, three months of work by five guys to be exact, and the place hadn’t felt so solid for 50 years. It’s been propped, tweaked, reinforced, and added, too, and it shows. One of the tricky spots to reach was the end near the land-side door. That section was raised up several inches due to the accumulation of small debris and seaweed completely jammed up under the building from the wave action. The space was too narrow to access underneath from the waterside, and even with removing a couple of planks from the entrance ramp, the junk was too jammed-packed to push out from between the floor joists. Some major head-scratching ensued. Then, the fire truck was called upon to shoot high-pressure water from the hose under the building from the access spot on the ramp. Boom, no more debris under the building! It got collected up so it wouldn’t find its way back in, and the floor was settled back into place. Back to Sunday, March 10th, another southwest gale with screeching winds and storm surge arrived mid-day. This time, we left the large doors on the floor open. Their original purpose was to expose the launch ramp to get large boats we built out of the building. The floor doors were now new and newly hinged to the floor. The thought process for leaving them open was that letting the ocean in and out without too much restriction would lessen the pounding on the entire floor and building. There were also the same lobster totes filled with every heavy metal pipe, tool, iron bars, and junk sat down in the middle of the floor to help hold it in place that had been used previously. Tides weren’t quite as high as before, although the wind might have been stronger than the last storm in February. Damage was minimal inside, but the large door to the wharf was torn off, and the wharf sustained more damage. Of course, during all this time, we have been talking, dreaming, imagining, and planning some changes to the Ol’ place. Obviously, our current situation is not sustainable. We have hired our own engineers to help with these plans. Nothing is finalized yet because this is a massive undertaking, and many pieces have to fit together for us and all of downtown. Not the least of which is the Waterfront Project the town has undertaken. Our engineers are working with the Town’s engineers to find the best solutions for all of us. Surveyors have been out and mapped out the whole waterfront, and that information is being shared. We will be phasing our work over several years, and the first step for us is getting new fuel pumps on the wharf and land and figuring out how to keep them above water! Currently, our land-side fuel pump does work, and it will take credit cards, but it does sporadically stop working when condensation rears its ugly head!
Our first phase plan is to move our white garage back a few feet and turn it so the garage doors are facing more towards Waterman’s. That will give us better access to put boats in there to work on them. That is our one heated work building on the waterfront, or it will be once the old, swamped furnace is replaced with a new heating system. This will allow room to move the pumps to the end of that building, opposite the new office building we put on the end of the hardware store last summer. The new fuel pumps will have access on two sides for cars with four nozzles, two gasoline, and two on-road diesels. This pump will be on a raised concrete platform, and we will bring in fill to raise the entire area by several feet. We hope that raising the hardware store, which is, in fact, the lowest building, will also be a part of this first phase. We plan to replace and rearrange the fuel storage tanks, giving us more capacity and reducing the fuel outages. The fuel pump for boats will also be replaced. Most importantly, we will bring in fill to raise the grade of the entire area between the garage and the boat shop. Stay tuned for more updates here and on Facebook as we make our way through the process.
We held out a bit of hope that the federal government (FEMA) would come through with some financial aid, but so far, they are offering low-interest federal loans for businesses that could only be applied to repair the damage, not mitigate future storm damage. We have, however, submitted an application to the State of Maine for a Working Waterfront Resiliency Grant. We believe we have a strong application that is ticking all their boxes, but we won’t find the results until August. Meanwhile, our GoFundMe is still active if you want to support our ongoing redevelopment efforts. We are also selling Supporter Tee Shirts here on our website and at the boatyard. Created by Brett Thompson they depict the community pitching in to help us. See the photo below of the design.
