People who live along Jobs Pond in Portland say they’re close to losing their homes due to rapidly rising waters.
They say it’s a combination of increased rainfall in recent months and runoff from areas around the pond. It’s estimated the pond has risen 15 feet over the winter months.
Last weekend’s storm made matters worse. Dawn Schmidt, who rents a home along the pond, said she’s spent the last several days without utilities due to 37 inches of water in her basement.
“The furnace is gone, no heat, I have no water at all,” Schmidt said. “My landlord did everything in his power to try to save the furnace and save everything, but all the rain just pushed it over the edge.”
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She said she’s forced to move from the home that she’s rented the last two years, long before she ever planned to.
“I'm going to have to move,” she said tearfully. “It's devastating, and it's going to be very hard to find a place to live with two dogs and no notice. I truly love it here.”
Homeowners along the pond call the situation terrifying, as every storm that rolls in dumps more and more water that ends up inside their homes. Almost everyone has a sump pump going around the clock.
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Ellen Mantel, who’s lived here 68 years, said she’s had to remove her furnace, hot water heater and oil tank among other items, and currently has them sitting in a spare bedroom.
"It's terrifying, it's just terrifying. You know, we've got people now that are already out of here, that have had to move out because of the fact that the water's too high and they're afraid,” Mantel said. “We're just desperate right now. If we can't get help soon, if we have to wait too long, we're gonna have to shut down our homes.”
Mantel used to have a few hundred feet of property before reaching the water, but now the water is up against her home.
“I had a nice lawn and then a wall and then it dropped down five feet and a nice beach beyond that where I had my dock. Now, the water is up underneath my house. It's actually coming in my basement door," Mantel said.
Even a summer camp that sits on the pond is feeling the impacts. The water has encroached on YMCA Camp Ingersoll, taking over its beach and lifeguard pavilion. They’re now forced to rework their swim program for more than 600 campers this summer.
"It's definitely the highest that I've seen it,” Camp Director Ben Silliman said. "You can see our lifeguard pavilion is pretty underwater. It started to rise in December, and it's continued to do so."
Veronica Ketch, president of the Jobs Pond Waterfront Corp., said the last time the pond was this high was in 1984. She said the governor at the time called in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to pump out six feet of water into the Connecticut River.
She hopes for both a short and long-term fix, as she said building projects happening around the pond creates more runoff, adding to the problem. She said so far no one on the local or state level has been helpful.
"They're in dire straits right now and looking at being displaced out of their homes,” Ketch said.
Portland Town Selectman Ryan Curley said the town is limited in its resources but “we are in contact with state and federal officials and hopefully we will be able to get some assistance for these residents.” He added that nothing is confirmed yet.
