Eight months after an iconic lighthouse in Maine was damaged by a winter storm, it was returned to its former glory.
What's happening?
For 127 years, the Pemaquid Point Light bell tower in Bristol endured the wrath of storms from the Atlantic Ocean. In January, two tempests within days wiped out almost half the building, nearly toppling it into the sea, as Boston.com reported.
Including a deadly December storm that killed four people, the coast sustained hundreds of millions of dollars in damages, including to the Pine Tree State's biggest lobster port in Stonington.
"Our little community is in shock and devastated by the amount of destruction that the last storm has rought," SugarSpell bakery in New Harbor wrote on Facebook on Jan. 11, a day after one big blow and two days before another. "So many hard working folks lost docks, fish houses, and even homes. Our beloved lighthouse took a major hit."
Portland recorded its third-highest water level at 13.8 feet, and the storm that dislodged the bell included 79 mile per hour winds.
"The waves came up and hit it hard," Bristol Parks and Recreation Department director Shelley Gallagher told Boston.com. "It was just such a high tide and so much surf. There was so much power behind it."
Why is this important?
Rising temperatures — there has been no relief for 15 months now — are contributing to extreme weather events around the world. That includes increasingly intense and frequent extreme weather events such as droughts, floods, wildfires, and more, likely contributing to this series of storms.
But the changing climate has also made Maine one of the most at-risk places in the United States, with 1.5 feet of sea level rise expected by 2050 and four feet by 2100, CNN reported. This after just 7.5 inches in the last 100 years.
It does not bode well for the coast or the lobster and fishing industry. If the coast can't support the businesses that have called it home for generations, or those companies can't rebuild fast enough, the region could be lost for good.
What's being done about increasingly severe storms?
Though the lighthouse bell tower was rebuilt, it may be cost-prohibitive if it's knocked down again and again. Insuring overwater buildings is already all but impossible as well, as one business owner told CNN.
The solution is for corporations and governments to more quickly divest from dirty energy sources, which are driving the warming planet with toxic heat-trapping gases. The Maine AFL-CIO also noted the state's labor unions are positioned to help make this change and give communities a fighting chance to survive what seems like an inevitable decline.
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