Current:Home > reviewsThis photo shows the moment Maine’s record high tide washed away more than 100-year-old fishing shacks -EquityZone
This photo shows the moment Maine’s record high tide washed away more than 100-year-old fishing shacks
View
Date:2025-04-14 12:36:57
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! (16)
Related
- In ‘Nickel Boys,’ striving for a new way to see
- Jake Paul vs. Mike Perry fight results: Who won by TKO, round-by-round fight analysis
- Revisiting Josh Hartnett’s Life in Hollywood Amid Return to Spotlight
- Why Jim Leyland might steal the show at Baseball Hall of Fame ceremony
- Why Sean "Diddy" Combs Is Being Given a Laptop in Jail Amid Witness Intimidation Fears
- Woman stabbed inside Miami International Airport, forcing evacuation
- Seven Spokane police officers, police dog hurt in high-speed crash with suspects' car
- Electric Vehicles Strain the Automaker-Big Oil Alliance
- Man can't find second winning lottery ticket, sues over $394 million jackpot, lawsuit says
- Delta Air Lines says cancellations continue as it tries to restore operations after tech outage
Ranking
- Israel lets Palestinians go back to northern Gaza for first time in over a year as cease
- Behind Biden’s asylum halt: Migrants must say if they fear deportation, not wait to be asked
- Microsoft outage shuts down Starbucks' mobile ordering app
- Setback to Israel-Hamas cease-fire talks as far-right Israeli official visits contested Jerusalem holy site
- Justice Department, Louisville reach deal after probe prompted by Breonna Taylor killing
- Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese rivalry has grown the game. Now they're All-Star teammates
- Why Gymnast Dominique Dawes Wishes She Had a Better Support System at the Olympics
- Evan Mobley and Cleveland Cavaliers agree to max rookie extension
Recommendation
'Kraven the Hunter' spoilers! Let's dig into that twisty ending, supervillain reveal
Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich sentenced by Russian court to 16 years in prison
Photos show reclusive tribe on Peru beach searching for food: A humanitarian disaster in the making
Sheila Jackson Lee, longtime Texas congresswoman, dies at 74
Whoopi Goldberg is delightfully vile as Miss Hannigan in ‘Annie’ stage return
Seven Spokane police officers, police dog hurt in high-speed crash with suspects' car
1 week after Trump assassination attempt: Updates on his wound, the shooter
Bangladesh protesters furious over job allocation system clash with police, with at least 25 deaths reported