MAINE MONITOR • January 28, 2024
Many of Maine’s lighthouses withstood the hurricane-force gusts better than expected, but a number – including buildings on Pemaquid Point, Wood Island, Portland Headlight and the Rockland Breakwater — suffered significant damage. Maine’s lighthouses are iconic. They appear on napkins and postcards, on tea towels and in photographs; in films and novels. Poets write odes to them, and, even in the age of GPS and radar, sailors still use them to help keep their vessels out of danger. “They’re not only historic,” said Trapani Jr., “They’re also so important to our sense of place, our culture and our tourism.” They are also old, hard to get to, expensive to upkeep and extremely vulnerable to rising seas and intensifying storms.