SPECIAL REPORT: Nature is curating its own vision for MDI; what will recovery look like?
SOUTHWEST HARBOR, Jan. 12, 2024 - High tide will conjoin with high gusts tomorrow at high noon. We will then be able to take measure of the true impact of this trifecta of storms, the likes of which we have seen only once in a while and not once every week.
It could be a reckoning for several major attractions in these parts - Shore Path in Bar Harbor, Acadia National Park’s signature beaches and trails and virtually the entire waterfront on Little Cranberry Island.
Locals on social media commented on how Clifton’s Dock was barely hanging on after last weekend’s storm surge. Another resident said, “The Islesford Dock was badly damaged. Tomorrow’s storm may be the final blow.”
Charlotte Buchanan Gill, owner of the Seawall Motel in Southwest Harbor, considered herself lucky, even though the sea reached the bottom step of one of her buildings. A deck on her house took a hit and there was some other minor damage.
She told a Bangor TV station that the sea had never come that far in her lifetime.
The Seawall road was closed, but by this afternoon, repair crews made significant strides, clearing all the rocks. Let’s hope the new storm does not cancel out that effort.
Much of the damage on MDI was inflicted on private waterfront property such as this house on Bass Harbor in this video narrated by Arthur Paine.
“Many local businesses and properties in Tremont sustained substantial damage during the storm,” Town Manager Jesse Dunbar stated in an email.
“The Town’s Bernard Wharf in Bass Harbor was overtopped (flooded) and damaged , but according to the engineer and Harbormaster, there is a plan to repair the damage that is not nearly as severe as it looked during the storm. It is still closed off to vehicles at this time though.”
Route 102 is passable, and there was no damage to any of the bridges in town, Dunbar said.
Acadia NP spokesman John Kelly, stated in an email, “We have a cursory understanding of the damage to park facilities on MDI and Schoodic and will need time to fully assess the situation and develop a plan to respond. The priority today is to prepare for tomorrow's storm.
“As of now, certain sections of park roads/shoulders have significant damage, including the southern end of Schoodic Loop Road and the Otter Cove causeway on the Park Loop Road, which are intact but partially undermined.
“Much of the Seawall picnic area is buried in stones. A section of Seawall Road/State Route 102A has broken and shifted pavement (note that this is not a park road). About 800 feet of the 2-mile Ocean Path has been destroyed or significantly damaged. The bottom flight of wooden stairs at Little Hunters Beach has been destroyed. We assume that there are many trees across carriage roads and hiking trails, but we do not have a report on these yet.”
Carrie Jones of the Bar Harbor Story provided valuable coverage with her indefatigable reporting. (Hello, Islander, you still there?)
Of course, Bar Harbor always comes with its own sidebar, like this openly venting propane tank in the water on West Street in this video captured by an observer.
Nature has been sending us a pedagogical message the past year.
For 200 years or so, we have been shaping MDI to our specs and needs - “rusticator” mansions until they were wiped out by a fire, the taking of marsh land not meant for industrialization, the intrusion of cruise ships in the unspoiled waters gifted to our trust, restaurants catering to the idle rich perched on sketchy foundations.
In 2017, I spent a month as a resident fellow at the Rockefeller Institute in Bellagio, Italy where I met Pradip Krishen, the Indian naturalist who taught me to understand that nature is the foremost curator of our environment whether we like it or not.
Pushing against it is, well, an unnatural act.
So the Bar Harbor Village Improvement Society likely will attempt to restore the Shore Path, and then face the same task when nature decides differently, perhaps every year.
Acadia National Park can take a deep, introspective look into whether the construction by the Rockefellers more than a century ago still serve its public purpose. How long will the park re-invest in Sand Beach and washed-out carriage roads year after year against nature’s curative power?
The storm surge tomorrow is either a welcome warning shot, or a call to huddle deeper in our collective foxhole.
"Mother Nature decides what stays and what goes." To replace what she takes away is a foolish waste of money, especially if it is no longer insurable.
l can't be more in agreement of what Pradip Krishen stated to you in ltlay, concerning that nature will do as it pleases. The east coast from Boston to Key West has built up the ocean front. We have allowed real estate developers to build to the ocean's edge and charge a million plus for a condo. Follow the money and note how much people will spend for renting a piece of paradise. The money is just insane. In the early 60's a hurricane punched a whole on the barrier island that is Ocean City, Md. lt wasn't developed as it is now, and the current repair/replacement costs would be out of this world. Bottomline, l believe insurance companies are now taking these factors into consideration and are backing off in issuing policies (or raising rates big time), particularly on the ocean front. Building such structures that are little more than a sand castle on a barrier island; that is prone to migrate unless man spends much time and effort to keep it in the same place. Luckily, at least on this island we have mostly bedrock granite.