KENNEBUNK, Maine — "It's been extremely challenging, in this particular storm the damage is so widespread along the coast, and every town along the coast is facing the same problems," Kennebunk Fire Chief Justin Cooper told NEWS CENTER Maine. "In almost every single area the road is damaged, the seawall, and our public services workers are working really hard trying to identify all those areas that are completely undermined by the ocean waters."
Chief Cooper hopes residents are more patient with all the work that needs to be done. He also highly encourages everyone to avoid the coastal areas as crews are actively trying to repair damage and people in the way delay that process.
"In these storms both Wednesday and Saturday, we found the conditions were extremely unsafe for our responders, no way for us to possibly respond along the beach areas," Chief Cooper said.
Chief Cooper also said he plans to mimic what first responders in Florida do, if any other future storms of that magnitude hit the town's coast, and not send any emergency personnel to 911 calls until the peak of the storm has receded. The chief said last week a lot of the equipment was damaged, lots of gear that shouldn't be in salted water also got damaged, and he didn't feel comfortable sending firefighters to very dangerous scenes where his fire trucks were not able to cross certain roads.
"We need people to have a plan and evacuate if need be ahead of time," Chief Cooper said. "Leave ahead of time and find a safe place of refuge or shelter before that storm."
Ken Mason owns the Seaside Inn in Kennebunk, a historic inn that, to the best of his knowledge, holds the title of the oldest inn not only in Maine but in the country. Mason said his kids might be the 10th generation to keep its doors open, but he's highly concerned about the damage the sea wall got.
"We had a team of friends come down, we filled sandbags, we tried everything to make it so it wouldn't get over the wall and it got to the point that we just had to leave because we couldn't stop anything," Mason said.
Mason added that the sea wall is the only barrier that protects the ocean water from getting into the inn's yard and property.
"We are going to look into possibly renting jersey barriers, putting them across the front yard, and come with anything until the state gets permitted to put up a new sea wall," Mason said.
Chief Cooper's biggest concern right now is how weak and damaged the infrastructure is. He said it'll take a very long time to mitigate the widespread.
"We are looking for the same assistance, same workers, same contractors to fix those problems, not just in Kennebunk, every town along the coast," Chief Cooper said. "It's not just as simple as putting back a seawall, we have to follow federal regulations to do so and we also have to work with the Army Corps Engineers to do so, it takes time."