Current:Home > ScamsThis photo shows the moment Maine’s record high tide washed away more than 100-year-old fishing shacks -StockHorizon
This photo shows the moment Maine’s record high tide washed away more than 100-year-old fishing shacks
View
Date:2025-04-16 05:44:30
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! (537)
Related
- Are Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp down? Meta says most issues resolved after outages
- Aruba Considers Enshrining the ‘Rights of Nature’ in Its Constitution
- Destroying ‘Forever Chemicals’ is a Technological Race that Could Become a Multibillion-dollar Industry
- Listening to the Endangered Sounds of the Amazon Rainforest
- Off the Grid: Sally breaks down USA TODAY's daily crossword puzzle, Triathlon
- Extreme Makeover: Home Edition’s Ty Pennington Hospitalized 2 Days After Barbie Red Carpet
- A Status Check on All the Couples in the Sister Wives Universe
- Republicans Propose Nationwide Offshore Wind Ban, Citing Unsubstantiated Links to Whale Deaths
- The company planning a successor to Concorde makes its first supersonic test
- Barbenheimer opening weekend raked in $235.5 million together — but Barbie box office numbers beat Oppenheimer
Ranking
- Trump wants to turn the clock on daylight saving time
- Former gynecologist Robert Hadden to be sentenced to 20 years in prison for sexual abuse of patients, judge says
- Josh Hartnett and Wife Tamsin Egerton Step Out for First Red Carpet Date Night in Over a Year
- Make Sure You Never Lose Your Favorite Photos and Save 58% On the Picture Keeper Connect
- The Daily Money: Spending more on holiday travel?
- Joe Jonas Admits He Pooped His White Pants While Performing On Stage
- Suspected Long Island Serial Killer in Custody After Years-Long Manhunt
- German Leaders Promise That New Liquefied Gas Terminals Have a Green Future, but Clean Energy Experts Are Skeptical
Recommendation
Spooky or not? Some Choa Chu Kang residents say community garden resembles cemetery
Rural Communities Like East Palestine, Ohio, Are at Outsized Risk of Train Derailments and the Ensuing Fallout
For the First Time in Nearly Two Decades, the EPA Announces New Rules to Limit Toxic Air Pollutants From Chemical and Plastics Plants
Citing ‘Racial Cleansing,’ Louisiana ‘Cancer Alley’ Residents Sue Over Zoning
Grammy nominee Teddy Swims on love, growth and embracing change
Trader Joe's cookies recalled because they may contain rocks
US Emissions of the World’s Most Potent Greenhouse Gas Are 56 Percent Higher Than EPA Estimates, a New Study Shows
Listening to the Endangered Sounds of the Amazon Rainforest