Tag Archives: Chris Hole
Maine’s wharf owners scramble to repair what they can before lobstering season starts
Contractors are hard to come by amid the mounting demand for work to repair damage from the set of January storms that battered the coast of Maine. Now, as lobstering season begins, many on the working waterfront are patching their own wharves, hoping they can hold out until the real work can be done. Chris Hole was busy at work on a sunny Friday morning, taking apart his commercial fishing wharf like a game of Jenga. After pulling up the surface wooden slats, Hole used a fork lift to lower large wooden beams down to the deck. Josh Saxton, Hole’s right-hand man, would then slip between the large gaps in the deck to put the support beams in place. Photos, more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 06:43
January storms leave many working waterfronts in Maine adrift
Chris Hole watched in horror last month as the storm pummeled his family’s fishing business at Lookout Point in Harpswell. It was Jan. 13, and the second of two powerful storms in less than a week leveled Henry Allen’s Seafood, a lobster wharf, wholesaler and retailer. Strong winds and high tides wiped out the dock’s seawall, drowned new refrigeration units and flooded buildings with waist-high water. Guy Baker left his fish house on Bailey Island that day so he wouldn’t have to bear witness. When he returned, the building that had stood on the edge of Baker’s family property for more than 80 years had been reduced to a pile of rubble on the shore. Farther up the coast in the Washington County town of Milbridge, all but the supporting structure of Chipman’s Wharf floated away at high tide during the Jan. 10 storm. Photos, more, >>click to read<< 10:11
