Gouldsboro’s Coastal Resilience Committee met with engineers, hydrologists, and 43 Corea residents on Sunday, August 25 at Corea’s Black Duck Inn to discuss the damaging impacts of climate change on the coastal community. The meeting’s purpose was twofold; one, to describe the Town’s newly funded project focused on Corea Harbor, and the other, to hear from residents their concerns and personal experiences before, during, and after the winter storms of 2024. After an introduction describing how the project will unfold over the next nine months, the project’s engineer and hydrologist explained their roles. Attendees then broke into two focus sessions to identify problems and brainstorm approaches to solving them. One of the sessions focused on storm vulnerabilities at the causeway that connects Crowley Island to the mainland. The other focused on storm vulnerabilities at the junction of Corea Road, Cranberry Point Road, and Francis Pound Road.
The Crowley Island Causeway group participants told story after story about spruce and pine trees becoming uprooted, wharves destroyed, Lunch on the Wharf lifting from its pilings, and boulders picked up and deposited on lawns and access roads. Of prime importance was the problem that so many people, especially the elderly and vulnerable, were cut off from medical, fire, and police protection. One person told how a truck bringing an emergency generator to a seriously ill person in need of oxygen was initially unable to get across the causeway to Crowley Island because of the big rocks on the road. A neighbor on the mainland side finally got the generator across the causeway by carrying in the bucket on the front of his tractor.
The group’s overwhelming response was extreme urgency: “The community can’t wait another minute.” “We need to do something ASAP.” “Can we speed up the process?” “Virginia hired Dutch engineers who are thinking 100 years ahead.” “Think of the future!” were some of the comments.
Participants in the group focused on the junction between Corea, Cranberry Point, and Francis Pound Road junction also had stories to tell about the January storm. In addition, they stressed the significance of the Corea Heath watershed in the National Wildlife Refuge immediately west of and above Corea. The culvert at the road junction is the point where all the water from the rich, complex heath and pond ecosystem in the Refuge reaches the sea. Design work aimed at addressing the flooding problem at the road junction must also consider how removing barriers to water flow would affect the upstream ecosystem. Removing barriers could potentially improve ecosystem resilience in the face of extreme rainfall events while also improving connectivity for diadromous fish, but getting it right will require careful thought.
Both groups agreed that we need active engagement now. There was widespread understanding that much more funding will be needed before construction can begin, and some attendees even suggested that they could personally donate money to the cause. The committee was grateful for the residents’ sharing of knowledge that is best gained by living in a place. Some of the residents have been in Corea, at least seasonally, for much of their lives. It was also wonderful to find overwhelming support for the project and interest in participating in the next three project work sessions.
After the meeting, committee members, project consultants, and Corea residents chatted about the next steps and how residents could participate as they put away chairs, munched on goodies, and traded stories. Watching a friendly collaboration emerge from a meeting about a devastating situation was heartwarming and refreshing.
Important takeaways from residents’ comments for the committee members and project consultants include:
- Storm damage vulnerabilities at the Crowley Island causeway constitute a significant life safety hazard, even when the interruption is only for part of a day.
- The Mill Pond Road intersection with Crowley Island Road should be part of the design planning work for the causeway.
- Flooding at the junction of Corea, Cranberry Point, and Francis Pound roads greatly impacts lobster operations and equipment because the fishermen who own facilities on Frances Pound Road allow many other fishermen to use the area as an access point to their boats.
- The January storms brought fierce winds and waves but very little rain. A big storm with heavy rainfall and wind and waves could result in significantly greater damage at the junction of Corea, Cranberry Point, and Francis Pound roads.
- Infrastructure improvements to reduce flood risk at this 3-way road junction must consider both the risks coming from the sea and those coming from freshwater running down the hills, which will require consideration of the Corea Heath watershed’s significance as a wildlife sanctuary in addition to its importance as a place that can absorb and hold water.
The project’s next community meeting will be at the Black Duck Inn on November 16 at 4 PM. Between now and then, the committee and the project consultants will synthesize the ideas and concerns aired at the first meeting into a set of alternatives for residents and other stakeholders to consider at the second meeting. That meeting’s goal will be to come up with a small list of alternatives that are well enough defined to enable the project consultants to estimate technical feasibility, flood risk management under existing and future conditions, resiliency, constructability, ease-of-permitting, potential for external funding, design life, operation and maintenance, and the fit to stakeholder objectives for each alternative. Project participants will use all of that consulting work in a third meeting next spring to select a preferred alternative for both the causeway and the road junction.
It will be possible to participate in the November 16 meeting via Zoom as well as in person. Check back at this Gouldsboro Shore website in early November for connection details.
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(Note: This post was a combined effort by Cynthia Thayer and Bill Zoellick. Cynthia created the overall structure and Bill filled in some of the details.)
