York Town News
Walloped!
By Jennifer L. Saunders and Melissa Wood
GIMME SHELTER. A York Beach resident struggles against 50-mph winds as he tries to make his way to safety across a flooded parking lot on Short Sands Beach in York just ahead of the height of the storm's fury Monday morning. See Photo Gallery
Photo by Steve Rasche
YORK and OGUNQUIT - Local business owners and residents alike started to hold their breath on Monday, as rains fell and astronomical high tides deluged the area with water reminiscent of last year's devastating Mother's Day storm.
However, even as the rains returned and continued to fall through Tuesday and high tides crested over roadways and property, officials and residents alike were breathing a collective sigh of relief that the damage was nothing like what was seen 11 months ago.
As the astronomical tide rose Monday morning, Harbor Beach was battered with mammoth waves, throwing stones and sand into the parking lot and moving stationary trash receptacles with the sheer force of the surge.
Throughout York Beach, York Harbor, Cape Neddick and Ogunquit, the scene was similar. Waves poured across Western Point Road while Long Sands Beach was hammered with waves of 20 feet and more.
Businesses surrounding Short Sands Beach prepared for the worst, with the memory of last year's Mother's Day deluge too fresh in everyone's minds.
York Beach Fire Chief David Bridges said it was a relief that the storm damage was not worse.
"Mother Nature cooperated quite a bit with us. The damage in York Beach this time was the minimal," Bridge said Tuesday. "All in all, compared to what it might have been, I think the York Beach area fared very well."
The preventative work undertaken by public safety personnel, York Public Works and local residents paid off, Bridges said. During the storm surge on Monday, Bridges was in downtown York Beach where he observed business owners maintaining storm drains to be sure they did not become clogged with seaweed or debris.
"I think they were instrumental in helping their own outcome," he said of that effort.
Bridges said there had not been any injuries associated with the storm, to his knowledge, and while the York Beach Fire Department did have a couple of residents spend the night in the shelter set up there for the storm, most residents fared well in their own homes.
The storm's aftermath was similar in Ogunquit.
"There's basically a lot of rubble, logs, seaweed and sand everywhere," said Ogunquit Fire Chief Ed Smith. "There's a lot of cleanup to do."
Smith said damages included sections of Marginal Way at Perkins Cove, the lighthouse at the Main Beach and the footbridge on Wharf Lane, which was going to need to be rebuilt.
He said they did not know how much damage the dunes had suffered from the storm, but said the whole snow fence had been washed away. He also said the Town Line Hotel experienced the same damage as it had during last year's Mother's Day flooding - with four or five feet of water in the cellar.
"The Town Line Hotel really got hit hard again, really hard," he said.
On a positive note, Smith said the new, partially installed bridge on Captain Thomas Road that was being put in to replace culverts that had been destroyed in the 2006 flood was left completely intact on Monday.
He said Ogunquit public safety personnel evacuated people from sections of town near the ocean, including Adams Island and Pickett's Lane, and police were stationed by Marginal Way to keep people off the footpath as it was pounded by waves of 30-plus feet.
"We were well organized because we just did it a year ago," said Smith.
John Garfield, owner of Garfield's on Railroad Avenue in York Beach, said he usually takes the week of April vacation off from work, but planned to keep the store open on Patriot's Day for holiday business. However, rising seas changed those plans.
"I was still open yesterday morning until eight-thirty, nine o'clock … until I saw the ocean come down the street," said Garfield, who was power-washing the side of the building between high tides on Tuesday morning.
Garfield said the building had not received any damage, although water from the brook behind the store rose high enough to get into the garage, and the brown, churning sea foam had swept up to within a foot of the newsstand's storefront.
"The wind was swirling it up like a cotton candy machine," said Garfield, describing the foam that covered York Beach's streets, sidewalks and parking lots and left a dirty brown stain on many of the downtown business buildings.
In York Harbor, docks were splintered near Old Varrell's Wharf as residents struggled to gather pieces of wood from the stormy waters.
Meanwhile, along the York River, the docks and roadways flooded as waters crested almost to the top of Sewall's Bridge and flooded portions of Lindsay Road on Monday.
The parking lot at the John Hancock Wharf and Warehouse was submerged, with the buoy-covered shed appearing to float upon the river itself.
In Ogunquit, officials were taking no chances. Every access way to the beaches was blocked with police tape in an effort to ensure the public's safety.
York Public Works Director Bill Bray and Police Chief Douglas Bracy were on there way out early Tuesday morning to begin assessing damage to roadways and sidewalks around town.
While the full assessment will take time to complete, Bray was optimistic.
"We've got some shoulder washouts and on Long Beach Avenue we've got a lot of sidewalk that we lost," Bray said.
Initial estimates from the Police Department were in the vicinity of 1,500 feet of sidewalk damaged or destroyed along the town's largest beach.
Several roads had been closed during high tide and the height of the storm on Monday, but as of Tuesday morning York Town Manager Rob Yandow said all roads except Betty Welch Road and Shore Road had been reopened to traffic.
"We're pretty fortunate in that almost all of our roads are open now," he said.
The Shore Road closure was due to a pole falling into the roadway, Yandow said, while Betty Welch Road was closed due to flooding.
That road has flooded multiple times in recent rain events, Yandow said, and is an area the town will need to look at for future work.
Superintendent of Schools Dr. Henry Scipione said that there had been no major reports of damage to any of the town's four schools, and the school vacation week alleviated last year's struggles of transporting students to and from schools with road closures required due to the storm.
Both Bray and Yandow reported that they were very relieved to know the temporary patch on Route 91, where the road had flooded and washed away in the Mother's Day storm last year, held throughout Monday's rain and tidal events.
"We were all concerned about Route 91," Yandow said.
Yandow and Bray also brought up the recent culvert replacements on Logging Road and Clay Hill Road that were required after the deluge of the Mother's Day storm ripped through roadways across York and Ogunquit.
"Both of our big culverts out on Logging and Clay Hill came through perfectly," Bray said, adding, "I'm not sure we wouldn't have lost Clay Hill Road without it."
Tuesday afternoon, Bracy and Bray were still continuing to assess the storm's impact on the town. Bray said there is damage to Western Point Road, but due to the tides, the extent is still being assessed.
Bracy confirmed that pockets of power outages still continued in areas of town as of Tuesday afternoon, including neighborhoods off Route 91, in the York Heights, off Shore Road and in Cape Neddick.
He urged residents to be aware that there are still power lines down around town, and to assume those wires are live and keep away from them
Meanwhile, the full extent of the damage to the sidewalks in York Beach will need to be assessed, Yandow said, and while there was significant flooding in the area of both Long Sands and Short Sands, as of Tuesday morning there had been no major reports of personal property damage.
This year's Nor'easter was different from the Mother's Day storm, he said, because the saltwater flooding came and went with the tides, whereas last year's event was from a deluge of freshwater that remained in the area.
A National Weather Service report issued Tuesday stated that seas of 16 to 22 feet that morning were expected to subside to between 12 and 17 feet, but that "coastal flooding will continue to be a concern" for the days ahead.
The worst case scenario, Yandow confirmed, would be the convergence of this year's astronomical high tides and the freshwater flooding the town saw last year.
Michael Mandravelis, a York Beach property owner and insurance agent, said he helped evacuate a neighbor at Long Sands on Monday morning. From an insurance standpoint, he said this year's damage did not come close to the Mother's Day storm of 2006.
"There's a lot of debris and foam, but that's about it," said Mandravelis as he sat in his truck watching a group of surfers tackle the waves near rocks by the Cutty Sark on Tuesday morning.
Nearby, beach rocks were scattered liberally along Long Beach Avenue, but farther down, near Beacon Street, large chunks of concrete slabs that been part of the beachfront sidewalk lay dislodged alongside the road.
According to the National Weather Service out of Gray, a coastal flood warning was expected to remain into effect into today, Wednesday, April 18, with concerns about astronomical high tides mixing with the force of the northeast wind and the persistent rain throughout most of the day on Monday and Tuesday.
