Current:Home > FinanceThis photo shows the moment Maine’s record high tide washed away more than 100-year-old fishing shacks -FutureWise Finance
This photo shows the moment Maine’s record high tide washed away more than 100-year-old fishing shacks
View
Date:2025-04-14 09:59:27
MEREDITH, N.H. (AP) — A record high tide in Maine washed away three historic fishing shacks that had stood since the 1800s and formed the backdrop of countless photographs.
Michelle Erskine said she was visiting fisherman’s point at Willard Beach in South Portland on Saturday when she captured video footage of the last two wooden shacks sliding into the ocean.
“Oh no. They’re both going. Oh no!” she can be heard saying on the video.
Erskine, who has lived in South Portland all her life, said her son had his senior photos taken at the shacks and wedding parties often visited them.
“It’s truly a sad day for the community and the residents of South Portland,” Erskine said in an interview with The Associated Press on Sunday. “History is just being washed away.”
The shacks, owned by the city of South Portland, had just undergone a facelift in October when they were repainted.
They were the last in a series of fishing shacks that predate the city’s incorporation after they were first built along the shore and then moved to their most recent location in the 1880s. Erskine said they once housed lobster traps and fishing gear. Two shacks were destroyed in an earlier storm in 1978.
A record 14.57-foot (4.4-meter) high tide was measured in Portland, Maine, just after noon on Saturday, after a storm surge amplified what was already the month’s highest tide, said National Weather Service meteorologist Michael Cempa. That broke the previous record of 14.17 feet (4.3 meters) set in 1978 and was the highest since measurements began in 1912. Cempa said the tide gauge measures the difference between the high tide and the average low tide.
The surge flooded some homes in Orchard Beach and Kennebunkport in Maine, and Hampton Beach in New Hampshire. It came just days after a previous storm damaged one of Maine’s most beloved lighthouses which is featured on the state quarter.
“Very sadly, all three fishing shacks at Willard Beach have been completely destroyed,” the city wrote on its Facebook page.
But the South Portland Historical Society sounded a note of hope, saying on social media that it had prepared for such an event by last year enlisting architects and engineers to create drawings “so that everything would be in place to build reproductions of the shacks, if needed.”
The society is asking for donations to rebuild.
veryGood! (6175)
Related
- Trump wants to turn the clock on daylight saving time
- Trainer of champion Maximum Security gets 4 years in prison in racehorse-drugging scheme
- Lawsuit over Kansas IDs would be a ‘morass’ if transgender people intervene, attorney general says
- Tom Brady, Irina Shayk break the internet with dating rumors. Why do we care so much?
- Current, future North Carolina governor’s challenge of power
- Jamie Lee Curtis discovers ‘lovely, weird’ family connection to ‘Haunted Mansion’ movie
- Mega Millions lottery jackpot nears $1B ahead of Friday drawing
- Niger’s presidential guard surrounds leader’s home in what African organizations call a coup attempt
- The Super Bowl could end in a 'three
- Texas Congressman Greg Casar holds hunger and thirst strike to call for federal workplace heat standard
Ranking
- See you latte: Starbucks plans to cut 30% of its menu
- NYC crane collapse: 6 people injured after structure catches fire in Manhattan, officials say
- School safety essentials to give college students—and parents—peace of mind
- Further federal probes into false Connecticut traffic stop data likely, public safety chief says
- How to watch new prequel series 'Dexter: Original Sin': Premiere date, cast, streaming
- Shedeur Sanders speaks on Colorado Buffaloes meshing, family ties at local youth event
- California Gov. Gavin Newsom offers to help negotiate Hollywood strike
- Rob Manfred’s term as baseball commissioner extended until 2029 by MLB owners
Recommendation
Toyota to invest $922 million to build a new paint facility at its Kentucky complex
Jury convicts Green Bay woman of killing, dismembering former boyfriend.
Nearly a third of Oregon superintendents are new to the job, administrators coalition says
Stefon Diggs explains minicamp tiff with the Bills, says it's 'water under the bridge'
Sam Taylor
Japanese Pop Star Shinjiro Atae Comes Out as Gay
Ocean currents vital for distributing heat could collapse by mid-century, study says
Deadly wildfires in Greece and other European countries destroy homes and threaten nature reserves