SCARBOROUGH, Maine — Mainers along the southern coast woke up to unrecognizable damage after Saturday's storm.
"There used to be a rose hedge here, and a fence and my garden. My flower garden was in here," Maureen Burns, who lives next to Higgins Beach in Scarborough, said.
Burns, who has lived along the beach for the past two decades, said she typically hunkers down for incoming storms. However, by mid-morning on Saturday, she decided to get out of dodge.
"At 11:30, I just started crying because the house was shaking when the waves would hit, so I said I gotta get out of here," she said.
Burns' house was mostly left untouched, while some broken fences and rocks covered the property. While her house remained intact, her neighbor's house sitting closest to the ocean took the brunt of the forceful waves and strong winds.
About 20 miles south, people at Camp Ellis were taking in the sights as well.
"I knew once this wall collapsed I was done," Joseph Kehoe, a homeowner along the waterfront said, as he stood in front of a cement wall that collapsed in front of his house. "This has been here for 50-some-odd years, and it took this storm to knock this down. It's unbelievable."
Kehoe said on Saturday he watched through the window of his shaking house as waves were gusting and splashing as high as the second story, ripping off siding and breaking through its foundation.
"It makes me sick, makes me sick," Kehoe said.
Just down the road, an oceanfront property will need to be demolished as it's sitting on half of its foundation. The road in front of it, wiped out too.
Mayor of Saco Jodi MacPhail released the following statement, in part, after seeing the destruction along the shoreline:
"Our hearts go out to the residents, homeowners, and business owners of Camp Ellis. With our battered shoreline and the adverse effects of the jetty, this latest storm created damage I have not seen in my lifetime in Saco. While we have lost roads and possibly homes, there was, thankfully, no loss of life."