The rain and wind of the Jan. 9-10 storm brewed 13-14-foot tides that slammed against the coastline of the Boothbay Harbor region leaving destruction in their wake.

From lost piers and docks of homeowners in Southport and Newagen, to the non-existent pier of Ram Island; homes, such as the small house at Grimes Cove, which was pummeled by a wall of water crashing down on it; were damaged - some extensively, particularly boathouses. Some residents with waterfront properties watched in disbelief as their boathouses either floated away or were filled with two feet of water battering walls and shaking up everything inside, including cast iron stoves.

Shore Road at Ocean Point was transformed into a giant puzzle of torn up shapes punctuated with boulders dropped by the strength of the waves along the stretch of road. At Bluebird Ocean Point Inn, the sea continued paying house calls, the sea filling the back parking lot. The owners of the Inn were pleased to report the property damage sustained "was mostly superficial and we expect to be open for the season as planned!" 

President of the Card Cove Association of Ocean Point, Jeff Slayton, reported the pier and dock at Ocean Point “weathered both storms with amazing resilience.” The Association partners with Ebenecook Maritime and pulled three floats and stored them in a safe cove. “The pier itself had undergone significant structural enhancements both below and above the water line 11 years ago and clearly this work done by Prock Marine made a critical difference,” said Slayton. “Despite punishing wave and tide action, the dock pier held as firm as the Rock of Gibraltar with the exception of some minor issues like a washed away safety ladder, some bent fencing and a damaged kickplate. We are appreciative to our vendors at Ebenecook and Prock for their expertise when it was needed most.  One area where we will work with the Inn is our two-spot parking pad at the land side of the dock used for loading/unloading. It did experience significant wave damage and will be repaired.”

In Boothbay Harbor,  Tugboat general manager Bonnie Stover said nine rooms in the building extending over the water closest to Fisherman’s Wharf Inn (there are two such buildings at Tugboat) had over one foot of water fill them.  “That building sits lower than the other extending out into the water,” Stover said. “We moved most of the TVs and furniture out and our maintenance crew has been cutting sheet rock, drying out the water in the rugs. Decking in the parking lot that was lifted is now sitting above the pilings. The marina had minor issues - some of the pins came loose but were fixed right off.”

Stover was relieved to report no damage at Fisherman’s Wharf, and at Boothbay Harbor Inn, the sole issue was a float that got hung up on a pole. She further reported flooding in both the former housing the Windjammer Emporium and the ice cream shop. There are some minor issues at the marina there as pins came loose, but were fixed “right off.”

“Chuck Fuller is coming out to look at the damage to the building,” Stover said. “We are lucky to have a maintenance crew that can remove floors and hang sheet rock. But marine contractors … they were booked up before the storms. We were already booked to have piling work done at Fisherman’s this year.  Now I guess we will have to wait and see when the new work can be done ...”

Jax van der Veen and Evan Hepburn at Whale’s Tale/Carousel Marina saw more damage to the marina than the restaurant. “We had centimeters to spare (at the Whale’s Tale) – thanks to the ramp into the restaurant for the disabled that elevated it just enough - but we were pacing for a little bit!”

In preparation for their opening season last summer, Hepburn and Matt Rice rebuilt 47 docks, which made them stronger. Van der Veen reported minor damage due to some flooding in the parking lot, decking that needs replacing, as well as some expensive items that will be replaced over time.

“The wind was hard on the siding of the buildings and the water took a lot of the guys tools,” van der Veen said. “The first surge knocked the main ramp and all of the decking off the boat launch.

“Once you get over the shock of it all you think about how this is going to affect us. Last summer was a hard first season, especially after having just rebuilt. We didn’t do the volume we would have liked to because the weather got in the way of that. When you think about all of these residential properties that lost their piers, you have to wonder what are people are going to do? Will they be able to rebuild and have their boats?” asked van der Veen. “Most of our restaurant business is dock and dine because we have parking lot issues. One of the driving factors in our state is our coastline, and with such destruction it’s possible that we’re going to take a huge tourism hit that will affect us in ways we can’t even predict yet.”

She noted Hepburn had taken a few small pier jobs for residential people, maybe take on a few more. “But, then there’s the permitting – DMR and the DEP are already backed up as it is, so there’s going to be conversation about how do we make this process as seamless as possible?”

Kaler’s escaped major damages. Sam Kaler reported the loss of some bar equipment, but not much more. “This old building is a barn on the water and does have a bit of a slant from the roadside to the dockside. We had about a foot and a half of water come in, but it went right back out again. We spent the following three days cleaning and getting things dried out and that’s really the extent of it. We will have to polyurethane the floor again – we always do that after closing in the fall. It was different to hear the water running around and gurgling in there. Luckily there are plenty of places for the water to escape.”

Pier One Pizza is another business picking up the pieces from the double dose of a storm surge followed by high tides. Owner Korey Lewis described this weather event as more severe than past flooding. “The past three receded pretty quickly, but this had 16 inches of water which remained for about an hour and half,” he said. Lewis reported the pizzeria needs to replace several pieces of equipment, furniture and the floor.

“We’re hoping to complete the clean-up by either Jan. 30 or 31, and hopefully reopen in mid-March to early April. Knock on wood, St. Patrick's Day,” he said.

Brady’s also experienced severe flooding but reopened within 48 hours after the storm. Owner Jen Mitchell reported “mud was everywhere,” but a “mountain of volunteers, friends and family” pitched in with the clean-up. “We would’ve been lost without them,” she said. “A Maine Health Inspector arrived at the pub a couple days after the storm. He was surprised the pub had re-opened. He asked ‘why we were open’ then inspected the pub. He was satisfied with the clean-up. He arrived shortly after the second event, and again, he was satisfied.”

Mitchell didn’t have insurance because of high premiums and a high deductible. With an estimated $24,000 annual cost, she decided it wasn’t worth it. “We really weren’t prepared for this. It was a surprise,” she said. “Mud came in from underneath and erosion lifted up the deck and mud followed. A mountain of volunteers mopped, ‘shop vacced’ and squeegeed to remove the invasive mud and we re-opened a couple days later.”