Maine
Commission urges Maine to prepare for next round of severe winter storms
Local business owner Rich Friscia leads a tour of his historic building that was lifted from its foundation by flood waters in last December’s storm. The building is now getting repairs funded by a state business resiliency grant that will help it better withstand future storms. Tuesday. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer
HALLOWELL — During last December’s storm, after flood waters submerged the basement and climbed three feet high in the first-floor shops, the Kennebec River lifted Rich and Barb Friscia’s four-story commercial building off its Water Street foundation.
The building didn’t float far, but the structural damage caused when the building fell back down caused engineers to worry the building could collapse and left the Friscias facing more than $200,000 in repairs.
“My wife and I bought the place in 2020 for retirement income,” said Rich Friscia, now 70, of Bridgton. “Because of the flood, we were facing possible bankruptcy. But we got lucky. With insurance, a state grant and a lot of help, we’re going to survive this, and we’ll be ready for the next one.”
Friscia gave a tour of his renovated basement on Tuesday to members of the Maine Infrastructure Rebuilding and Resilience Commission before it released its first report on how the state can prepare for more extreme weather events like the December flood and be ready to recover and rebuild.
The report calls for a range of short and long-term resiliency proposals, including improved emergency communications, an online flood risk disclosure, streamlined rebuilding permitting, storm preparedness grants for homeowners, and voluntary buyouts for oft-flooded properties.
For example, the commission wants to give local officials and emergency managers access to the federal Integrated Public Alert and Warning System to send wireless alerts to all mobile phones within a designated area, without requiring prior registration, during emergencies.
The commission wants the state to develop an online tool to make it easy for a buyer to find out if their home is at risk of flood – something required under Maine’s new disclosure law – and help homeowners assess their need for flood insurance and home improvements to minimize flood damage.
Gary Lamb, Halowell city Manager, speaks during a news conference at Hallowell City Hall on Tuesday, when the state released a storm damage report. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer
The commission wants Maine to consider giving grants to Maine residents to strengthen their homes against future weather-related losses, like roof replacements, storm windows or shutters, tree branch removal and building retaining walls to direct water around home foundations.
The report also suggests that the state help fund the 25% municipal cost share for FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, which buys flood-prone properties from homeowners who want to sell. The land is turned into wetlands, gardens or wildlife refuges to reduce future flooding.
The grant that helped the Friscias stave off bankruptcy was a $100,000 Business Recovery and Resilience Grant. The Legislature established the $10 million fund to help businesses and nonprofit organizations recover from damages caused by the storms in December 2023 and January 2024.
‘STORMS KNOW NO POLITICS’
The Friscias are using the funding for floor joist replacement, mold remediation, foundation strapping, basement flood vent installation, sump pumps, and sloped drainage to allow water to recede more easily during future floods.
Although those grants require businesses to increase resilience to future storms and other climate conditions that scientists say make those storms more frequent and ferocious, Gov. Janet Mills noted that preparing for extreme weather is a bipartisan concern. Mills said she would review the report and work with the Legislature to find ways to better prepare for and respond to future storms.
“Storms know no politics,” Mills said Tuesday in a written statement issued upon receiving the report. “They don’t care if you are a Republican, Democrat or independent. They will flood our homes and businesses, wash out our roads and bridges, and threaten the health and safety of our people.”
The December 2023 and January 2024 storms caused an estimated $90 million in damage to Maine’s public infrastructure, plus millions more in private property losses.
“The city of Hallowell was hit hard by the December 2023 storm, like many riverfront communities in Maine,” City Manager Gary Lamb said. “A river gauge alerted us to the flooding, allowing downtown businesses to salvage food, appliances and merchandise.”
Local business owner Rich Friscia leads a tour on Tuesday of his historic building, which was lifted from its foundation by flood waters in last December’s storm. The building is now getting repairs funded by a state business resiliency grant that will help it better withstand future storms. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer
One of the recommendations included in the commission’s interim report is for the installation of more river gauges throughout inland Maine, where areas that have never been flooded before saw extensive building, road and riverbank damage. Four people died in the December floods.
But over the long term, Lamb knows the city must harden the Front Street riverbank to become more flood resilient, or it will “all wash away in the coming decades.”
COST AND FUNDING
The resiliency commission will deliver its final report in May, which will focus on longer-term solutions. None of the proposals in the first report included cost estimates, but the commission plans to spend more time exploring possible funding methods for the final report.
When pressed about costs, commission officials pointed to a recent study released by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that found every $1 spent on climate resilience and preparedness saves communities $13 in damages, cleanup costs and economic impact.
While the winter storms caused destructive river flooding, coastal properties and beaches also took a beating from storm surges and waves. And coastal storms are expected to become more destructive as sea levels continue to rise.
The Gulf of Maine has risen about 7.5 inches over the last century, with about half of that happening since the 1990s. The Maine Climate Council projects seas will rise another 1.1 to 3.2 feet by 2050 and 3 to 9.3 feet by 2100, depending on how much we curb global emissions rates.
Mainers don’t have to imagine what storms like the ones we had last winter will do to Maine’s future coastline. The state has mapped out how much of it will be lost to rising sea levels under different scenarios, in different years, and what future storms could do to that which remains.
A 1-foot increase in sea level by 2050 will lead to a 15-fold increase in the frequency of nuisance flooding, which is daytime or high-tide flooding that happens absent a storm. It would cause a “100-year storm” flood level to have a probability of occurring once every 10 years.