MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • December 5, 2021
A residential neighborhood built a half-century ago 3 miles inland from the Portland waterfront will soon be part of a federally designated flood zone, a shock to homeowners who weren’t even aware of the tiny creek that now threatens their property values and family budgets. Lois Winter, a retired conservation biologist for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service who lives on Alden Circle, says she has a lot of questions about the methodology and data FEMA used in its decision to expand the floodplain for Capisic Brook, which runs along the southern edge of her backyard. Winter was living here in October 1996, when a storm dumped nearly 15 inches of rain on Portland. Winter said that storm brought Capisic Brook up to the edge of her foundation. “It was a 500-plus-year flood event. But the sump pump was operational and we had zero water in the basement.”