Duxbury hurries to plug failed sea wall
Duxbury officials are scrambling to replace 200 feet of sea wall that was swallowed by the Atlantic Ocean during last week’s nor’easter before another powerful storm batters the coastline and dumps more than a foot of snow on communities in central and western Massachusetts.
The South Shore town’s sea walls are “in crisis and (are) in the process of failing,” Town Manager Rene J. Read said yesterday while speaking with reporters near a decimated section of sea wall that eroded into the ocean Monday afternoon.
“Over the last 48 to 72 hours, we witnessed large portions of our sea wall fall into the Atlantic Ocean,” Read said. “We’re trying to prevent further erosion ... This is a huge problem for the town.”
In the hopes of shoring up the wall, private contractors used trucks to deliver massive armament stones to the damaged section yesterday afternoon. The giant stones were then backfilled as Robyn Chiminiello, 62, watched while worrying about her house, which is located behind where the sea wall once stood.
“I’ve got everything invested in this house and in one day, it could be gone,” she said. “It’s surreal. You almost can’t believe it. It’s everything I’ve worked for my whole life. But you can’t stop Mother Nature, either.”
Another winter storm that will roar into the region today is expected to dump between a foot and 18 inches of snow across cities and towns in central and western Massachusetts. Boston, meanwhile, is expected to get about two inches of snow and might see an additional inch of rain, National Weather Service meteorologist Lenore Correia said.
As of yesterday afternoon, the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency reported that more than 11,000 Bay State customers were still without power, down from a high of more than 400,000 during the height of this past weekend’s storm. Correia said coastal communities still reeling from the last wintry blast could be battered by 55 mph wind gusts, which could generate more localized flooding and cause widespread power outages.
“Trees and wires may still be vulnerable,” she said. “Our biggest concern is the potential for power outages.”