Current:Home > MarketsThis photo shows the moment Maine’s record high tide washed away more than 100-year-old fishing shacks -MoneyBase
This photo shows the moment Maine’s record high tide washed away more than 100-year-old fishing shacks
View
Date:2025-04-14 16:38:53
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! (6224)
Related
- San Francisco names street for Associated Press photographer who captured the iconic Iwo Jima photo
- Travis Hunter, the 2
- Jamie Foxx reps say actor was hit in face by a glass at birthday dinner, needed stitches
- Questlove charts 50 years of SNL musical hits (and misses)
- Global Warming Set the Stage for Los Angeles Fires
- DeepSeek: Did a little known Chinese startup cause a 'Sputnik moment' for AI?
- The company planning a successor to Concorde makes its first supersonic test
- Tree trimmer dead after getting caught in wood chipper at Florida town hall
- Most popular books of the week: See what topped USA TODAY's bestselling books list
- Tree trimmer dead after getting caught in wood chipper at Florida town hall
Ranking
- Highlights from Trump’s interview with Time magazine
- IRS recovers $4.7 billion in back taxes and braces for cuts with Trump and GOP in power
- Why members of two of EPA's influential science advisory committees were let go
- Meet the volunteers risking their lives to deliver Christmas gifts to children in Haiti
- Newly elected West Virginia lawmaker arrested and accused of making terroristic threats
- Stamford Road collision sends motorcyclist flying; driver arrested
- Appeals court scraps Nasdaq boardroom diversity rules in latest DEI setback
- Federal hiring is about to get the Trump treatment
Recommendation
Warm inflation data keep S&P 500, Dow, Nasdaq under wraps before Fed meeting next week
Why members of two of EPA's influential science advisory committees were let go
South Korean president's party divided over defiant martial law speech
IRS recovers $4.7 billion in back taxes and braces for cuts with Trump and GOP in power
Taylor Swift Eras Archive site launches on singer's 35th birthday. What is it?
Average rate on 30
Could your smelly farts help science?
Meet first time Grammy nominee Charley Crockett