PORTLAND, Maine — More than 100 Maine businesses and organizations that were impacted by January's rain and windstorms will receive nearly $6 million in grant funding for recovery and resiliency.
Gov. Janet Mills' administration released the full list of businesses that will receive funding Thursday, but many business owners and organization directors said they were completely unaware that their funding applications were approved.
For executive director of the Kennebunkport Historical Society Kristin Haight, the announcement was a pleasant surprise.
Haight said the nonprofit had to pull nearly $50,000 from its emergency fund to make immediate repairs to the basement that was flooded.
The Kennebunkport Historical Society is based in an old home. Haight explained that the damage to the home's foundation, as well as the moisture and humidity caused by the flooding, was threatening to the artifacts and historical pieces that the home holds.
"The water was coming directly in, just pouring right in as fast as it could rain," she said.
The historical society is set to receive $15,000 of the funding. Haight said they are still working to finalize repairs to faulty steps near an entrance. She also said the excavation has not been completed.
Business and nonprofit leaders from all over said they did whatever was necessary to keep their companies and organizations afloat and continue to serve their communities.
The director of Camp Winnebago Andy Lilienthal said they had to use money from their rainy-day fund and take out loans to make structural repairs to businesses that were damaged. They also had to cover the cost of removing downed trees.
Camp Winnebago was granted $50,000 in funding, money that they can now use to reinvest into the overnight camp they offer to young boys and prepare for next year's camping season.
"When your resources are spent in other areas, it makes it difficult to do that," Lilienthal said.
Unlike many business owners and directors who were local when the storm hit, Kennebunk Beach Improvement Association Director Mimi Fox was 10 hours away at her home outside of Philadelphia when the disaster ripped through.
She anxiously watched the wind throw water from Mother's Beach onto the nonprofit's playground from a security camera. Fox said she made the drive to Maine after the second storm was clear.
"The space of the playground itself, we saw the actual exposed footing of the bottom of the seawall," she said.
This was a sight Fox explained that she had never seen before. She said the wind dumped all the sand from the playground and some from the beach in the pool.
"It was piled up underneath our pool cover," Fox said. "We had a pool cover. It didn't matter. The sand got right underneath it."
The basement was also flooded with five feet of water damaging water heaters. Businesses and organizations like hers experienced exterior property damage that is often not covered by insurance, making the new grant funding from the state critical
"We could've probably claimed our water heaters. Right? Because they're the interior of the space," Fox said. "But everything else that happened on our property was not claimable."
As a requirement of the grant, business owners and organization directors must rebuild in ways that make their properties more resilient.
Fox said they installed an interim playground structure that will be replaced. She said they also plan to put a rip rap around the property and make other changes to strengthen the structure of the space.
The nonprofit was granted a total of $100,000 in funding.
Representatives from the Department of Economic and Community Development said some of the business organizations receiving funding still need to submit documentation for further review. If they cannot provide the necessary documentation, the amount of grant funding that they receive may be adjusted.