Experts say that global warming will bring about greater risk of coastal flooding, even before the ocean rises a foot or more. While coastal Maine will not be threatened as much as Florida and New Jersey coastal areas, even heavy rains could cause more flooding than in the past.
The coastal areas of Biddeford and Saco are at risk, because they are relatively low-lying, and rivers and creeks flow through them to the sea. Over the rest of this century, the damage storms cause is likely to intensify.
That is why, in our coastal communities, we need to be prepared for these potential emergencies before they happen. Fortunately, we in Maine started protecting our coast from overbuilding a long time ago. Still, we need to be very proactive to minimize the harm that could happen to our land and homes that are potentially in harm’s way.
We all need to work together on plans that will prevent flooding, to the extent possible, as well as to help things return to normal when floods do occur. In many of our towns near the coast, some roads become almost unusable when severe flooding occurs. We don’t always have alternate roads to drive on to get out of the flooded areas.
York County needs to think seriously about the potential for worsening floods in the coming decade, as polar ice melts and the ocean gets warmer. We need to be ready to deal with the potential impacts.
Back in 2010, York and Cumberland County officials protested against flood zone maps that the Federal Emergency Management Agency had proposed for our areas. The designations by FEMA would have required property owners in flood-prone and low-lying areas to buy expensive flood insurance. With significant help from Maine’s congressional delegation, changes were agreed upon.
This was good for potential developers, and good for the pockets of home owners. But what if more serious flooding does occur? What will happen then? We need our area leaders to make sure that we are well prepared, and that everyone in the community is aware of what they will need to do in the event of an emergency.
Homeowners need to receive official notices advising us of county plans and our expected responsibilities. The only thing many of us know is that we need to have bottles of water and stocks of food in case we cannot easily leave our homes. Most of us probably already have emergency supplies, given our experiences with snowstorms, electrical outages and occasional floods.
What we need from our elected and appointed officials is more assurance that good plans are in place to help reduce the likelihood of floods here. Next, we need to know how we will be informed about evacuations, if that should ever be required. Finally, we need to know what our county would do to help in the recovery, to get things back to normal.
Our community needs to learn from past experiences about what to do when flooding happens, homes are damaged or beach erosions occur. They need to be prepared for even more severe events, because they are likely to be in store for us, if global warming continues.
A good example of crisis planning is a program that the University of New England has been engaged in for a decade. The university’s key personnel have an all-day program where they simulate a particular emergency at their campuses. They act out the emergency, with each area of responsibility responding about how they will notify people, mitigate the problem, work with law enforcement, and inform the wider public about what is happening.
The university has learned a lot about how to minimize the potential for problems through the use of these simulated efforts. For example, they developed notification telephone chains, designating who would be called by whom and in what order, for a night emergency, such as a fire on the campus grounds. They also had students and college staff volunteers representing a staged crisis, showing how medical aid could be given, and how to cooperate with police and fire department personnel.
Our Maine coast is a wonderful place to live, but climate change is making it a little more risky. We need a broad-based group of citizens and officials to work together in support of our community. Most of all, we need to inform all of our residents about what is happening, what is planned and what they will need to do in a crisis situation.
— Bernard Featherman is a business columnist for the Journal Tribune and former president of the Biddeford-Saco Chamber of Commerce.
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