GARDINER — Roger Bintliff was hosting a Christmas party at a downtown cafe a year ago when it started raining.
Then the power went out, so I found a candle.
“There’s no warning that flooding is imminent or coming. Nothing that big,” he said.
By the next morning, the Kennebec River began to overflow its banks.
As the mayor walked downtown, people started commenting about how the water never stopped flowing.
“It kept coming and coming and coming,” he said.
He owned three buildings downtown and worked to pump water out of the basements. But he couldn’t catch up.
“All three basements were flooded with nine feet of water,” he said. “Everything was submerged in water: 11 refrigerators, three freezers, two ice machines, an oven, a mixer, a furnace. The oil tank was floating.”
Three and a half months later, after spending 18 hours a day cleaning up the mess, he reopened the store.
Bintliff’s Corner Brew was buzzing again Wednesday, one year after heavy rains and flooding caused millions in damage to many towns in interior Maine.
And while his business has been closed longer than most, other local small businesses in riverside towns have suffered similarly devastating losses, which state officials attribute to climate change disasters. This is a clear sign of things to come, he said.
According to the State Infrastructure Reconstruction and Resilience Commission, from March 2022 to May 2024, nine natural disasters severe enough to warrant a presidential disaster or state of emergency declaration occurred in Maine.
“The increasing intensity and frequency of these storms and floods is sending an urgent warning that climate change is at risk of intensifying in the state, and that Maine is planning for climate change resilience at the state, regional, and local levels. “We are keenly aware of the imperative to invest in this,” the report said. In response to the commission’s interim report released in November.
The December 2023 storm was the first of three severe storms to hit Maine in a short period of time, two of which arrived in January during astronomical high tides and caused “unprecedented devastation.” caused it. Combined, the three storms caused an estimated $90 million in damage to public infrastructure.
The report said this figure does not include “millions of dollars more in losses to private homes and businesses.”
The December storm lasted five days, starting with rain on the 17th and continuing until the 21st. The report describes catastrophic flooding not only occurring along the Kennebec River, but also in towns along the Androscoggin and Saco rivers.
Hundreds of roads were closed, winds of 45 to 80 mph knocked down trees and power lines, and more than 440,000 homes were left without power for days.
Four people died in the storm, two in a car that was swept into Mexico’s Swift River, and two in Windham and Fairfield trying to clear debris from properties.
Ten of the state’s 16 counties suffered damage, with total damage estimated at more than $20 million.
Although precipitation totals vary across the state, 7 inches of rain fell in western Maine, causing the Androscoggin River and its tributaries to “overtop roads, flood homes, drain culverts, and cause significant damage.” brought.”
In Hallowell, on the Kennebec River, Stephen LaChance, a partner at The Quarry Tap Room, said water not only filled his basement but also seeped into the basement of his restaurant. An adjacent multipurpose room at a lower elevation is filled with 12 to 14 inches of water.
“I would say this has kind of squeezed us to the knees,” he said. “This is the biggest thing we’ve endured since we opened.”
The restaurant, which opened in 2015, closed until mid-February after the 2023 flood, relocating its heat pump vents and water heater to another floor in the process.
LaChance said he was relieved that the quarry was busy in the summer, with outdoor seating along the river popular with diners.
“We have to be careful this year. We’re a little more careful with our money, so from here on out again into spring, fingers crossed, be careful of high waters,” he said. . “We should be in a much better place in 2025.”
In Augusta on December 20, 2023, Governor Janet Mills toured Front Street along the river, where water continued to pound the backs of buildings. Just a few yards away, Cushnock Brewing’s riverside tasting room was filled to the light bulb with water, said founder Tobias Parkhurst.
Additionally, although the main floor of the restaurant was not damaged, Central Main Power cut off power to the downtown building as a post-storm precaution.
“The scary thing for us is that now the fever is gone,” he says. “Our propane tanks are floating in the river. We can’t connect anything because we don’t have power. We can’t run generators outside on the sidewalk or inside the building.”
Just a few days later, Kushnok reopened the main restaurant, but it took six to eight months to repair the damage to the tasting room. Mr Parkhurst said he felt he had done everything he could to prepare for the next flood, but was concerned there was a tendency to issue too much warning when major flooding was not imminent. .
“Unfortunately, I think the scale of that storm surprised everyone,” he said. “And what I feel has really happened is that all the mechanisms that are in place to warn us have become a little bit more sensitive. Now we’ve got this flood warning. We’re in a situation where we’re ringing the bell more often. We need to know when the water is actually coming, not when it’s coming.”
Bintliff said he has done most of what he can to be better prepared and has ideas for other steps. He would like to see a more systematic notification system for all business owners established before the next major flood occurs.
“If there’s a major flood, you’re going to get a lot of phone calls, emails, text messages and you’re going to see police on the streets,” he said.
