Maine storms wash away iconic fishing shacks, expose long-buried 1911 shipwreck on beach

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. The dramatic incident, which was caught on video, happened just two days after a shipwreck from 1911 was exposed by another storm on a beach in Maine.

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 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 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 Old Orchard Beach and Kennebunkport in Maine, and Hampton Beach in New Hampshire. 

"I've seen a flood, but I've never seen anything like this and I lived here for 35 years," Hampton resident Susan McGee told CBS Boston.

The floods 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 in the storm," the city wrote in a social media post.

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.

During the storm, a fishing boat ran aground in Cape Elizabeth and four people were rescued by the Coast Guard, CBS affiliate WGME reported.

1911 shipwreck exposed at Acadia National Park 

As winter storms pounded the state's beaches, WABI-TV reported that an artifact was unearthed at Acadia National Park — a shipwreck from over a century ago.

The wreck of the Tay, a schooner that ran aground during a storm in 1911, was exposed Thursday morning at Sand Beach, after being buried for decades, the Bangor Daily News reported.

Some visitors gathered to see the shipwreck, but park staff reminded the public to look and not touch, WABI reported.

"There's big iron nails on there. I didn't think those would still be exposed," visitor Alissa Bischoff-York told the station.

According to the National Park Service, on July 28, 1911, the Tay was navigating a treacherous coastline during a powerful storm when it struck a ledge and broke into pieces.

"Clinging on for dear life to the broken mast, the Tay's crew waited till the tide went out so they could scramble to the safety of the sandy beach," the park wrote.

Most of the schooner's cargo, about 90,000 feet of spruce planks, was washed ashore by the waves.

Eventually the crew sought safety in a home owned by the Satterlee family, who ultimately built a boathouse with salvaged lumber to honor the shipwreck.

In:
• Winter Storm
• Shipwreck
• Maine

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