Sunday morning in Kennebunkport’s Dock Square was relatively quiet. Only a few people walked along calm streets that 24 hours prior had been completely under water thanks to a historic storm that battered southern coastal Maine.

Inside local businesses it was a different scene. Many shops on Ocean Avenue and Dock Square were closed, some with their doors flung open to help the water-logged interiors dry out. From shop windows, one could see merchandise in disarray and staff engaged in clean-up operations.

“This is our first time in 20 years flooding,” said Vicki Richards of Beach Grass, a gift shop in Dock Square.

The Jan. 13 storm brought historic high tides and massive flooding, that prompted Central Maine Power to proactively cut power in Dock Square due to fire and electrical hazards, according to the Kennebunkport Fire Department.

Other coastal communities, like Camp Ellis in Saco and Old Orchard Beach were also hit hard. In South Portland, three historic fishing shacks located near Willard Beach were completely swept away. Homeowners in Scarborough and Old Orchard Beach reported multiple feet of water in their properties thanks to the storm. And Portland’s high tide broke a previous record set in 1978, leaving numerous waterfront businesses submerged on Saturday. 

The devastating weather came only days after a Wednesday, Jan. 10, storm that also brought flooding, power outages, and fierce conditions.

Local businesses hurting from recurring floods

“This is our sixth flood total since 2018,” said Wendy Webster Good, the co-owner and director of Wendy Webster Good Fine Art in Kennebunkport, who on Sunday morning was armed with cleaning supplies, tackling total chaos in her usually pristine gallery. 

Her husband and co-owner Tim Good was also there. Saturday was the third time they had flooded in 13 months, he added, and the second time was just days before, during Wednesday’s storm.

The Goods cleaned shelves and cabinets marked by flood waters, salvaging art pieces that had gotten wet even though the couple had tried to clear everything out of harm’s way before the storm. 

“The question is how long can you afford to do business in Kennebunkport,” said Tim Good.

A Climate Action Plan Task Force in Kennebunkport is in the process of creating a Climate Action Plan — a road map for the town to reduce emissions and become more resilient in the face of climate change — and the group hosted an event in November to solicit input from local business owners. Tim Good attended the meeting and was the most outspoken business owner there talking about the threat of flooding.

The Goods have another mini gallery location at their home, but the prospect of closing their current store front in Dock Square — with its plentiful foot traffic — is a hard pill to swallow. While they were closed for clean-up, multiple would-be patrons still tried to enter the store.

“Take that person who wanted to come in here … (we would) lose a lot of that,” said Tim Good.

At the same time, there are other financial considerations to think about. “If you put a claim on insurance, your insurance just skyrockets. And it’s astronomical as it is,” said Wendy Good.

Next door at Daytrip Jr., owner Jessica Jenkins oversaw her staff’s clean-up efforts. A store worker brought out a receptacle that had previously held merchandise that was filled to the brim with dirty water and dumped it out on the sidewalk.

“We’ve had water at Daytrip Jr., but never at our other store, Daytrip Society,” said Jenkins. Daytrip Society, a lifestyle store that sells apparel and other goods, is also in Dock Square. At the time of interview, Jenkins had yet to hear back from insurance about whether her claim related to the storm damage would be covered.

When asked if she has doubts about the viability of keeping her business in Kennebunkport long term, she said she’s committed to staying in town, though she acknowledged that some sort of bold action is necessary to help businesses survive. 

“It’s just a huge question of how they’re going to raise everything up or move it to a different area,” she said, referencing the different options that the municipality could pursue for helping businesses survive.

She praised the town for its overall response to the disaster, particularly the work of the Chamber of Commerce and the fire department. 

Already battered Camp Ellis hit hard

Thirty minutes from Kennebunkport, a huge clean-up job was also underway in the coastal community of Camp Ellis in Saco.

“(There’s downed) propane tanks, foundation damage, broken windows, there’s a couple of cars that were probably totaled from the seawater,” said Jake Madore, an employee with Saco Public Works, summarizing the damage he was seeing.

Some of the most harrowing damage was on Eastern Avenue, where a section of the road that’s exposed to the coastline was completely destroyed and no longer passable. The house at that section of the road was missing part of its foundation and sat precariously on poles and cinder blocks that had survived.

A woman from Scarborough looked on tearfully at the damage. She said that she usually rides her bike down Eastern Avenue and was disoriented when she had first laid eyes on the familiar road that was now completely upended.

The owner of the impacted house was on site picking through the damage, though he declined to be interviewed.

“Our hearts go out to the residents, homeowners, and business owners of Camp Ellis. With our battered shoreline and the adverse effects of the jetty, this latest storm created damage I have not seen in my lifetime in Saco. While we have lost roads and possibly homes, there was, thankfully, no loss of life,” wrote Saco Mayor Jodi MacPhail in a press release on Saturday.

Camp Ellis has long been impacted by severe coastal erosion, in large part thanks to a jetty constructed by the Army Corps of Engineers at the mouth of the Saco River in the 19th century. The jetty amplifies the destructive power of the waves hitting Camp Ellis, over time gobbling up shoreline. The community has lost nearly 40 homes thanks to the erosion.

For years, an effort by the Army Corps of Engineers to construct a spur jetty to blunt the effects of the existing jetty languished, but the effort has been newly reinvigorated. On Nov. 27, Saco City Council voted to approve a project proposal agreement that would see the Army Corps of Engineers use federal money to build a spur jetty and replenish the beach with sand. It is a step towards finding a long term solution, though actual relief from erosion is still a far ways off.

A few blocks over on Bay Avenue, contractor Ryan Charron was using a small truck to scoop up sand that had completely covered one property’s shore-facing back deck. He was there with the property’s manager, Jen Stanton. Nobody had been at the house during the storm, she said.

“This was a brand new $25,000 deck, and the waves literally took everything apart,” Charron said. The railings around the deck were poking out of the sand. “These are 40 inch railings, and there’s less than 18 inches of railing showing.”

Charron, who said he does all sorts of contracting jobs, from finish work to custom design, for businesses and property owners in the area, estimated that the damage in Camp Ellis totaled in the millions.

“It’s continuous rebuild if you live next to the coast,” he said.

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