Chunks of concrete lie on the ground next to a heavily damaged h…
Chunks of concrete lie on the ground next to a heavily damaged house in Marshfield, Mass., on January 28, 2015. Waves ripped into the 1930s-era seawall in several places, battered some structures, and strewed stones as large as basketballs on the seaward-side yards and porches of some homes.
The oceanfront faces of two Marshfield houses bear the marks of …
The oceanfront faces of two Marshfield houses bear the marks of battering waves and wind-driven flood waters after the January 2015 storm. Both of these houses were totaled by the nor’easter.
Rushing water ripped down the seaward-facing walls of this house…
Rushing water ripped down the seaward-facing walls of this house, causing the roof to collapse. The water pushed large stones from the ocean up onto the property.
After the failure of a nearby stretch of concrete seawall, swirl…
After the failure of a nearby stretch of concrete seawall, swirling ocean water crashed through the lower story of this house and undermined this deck on the landward side.
After the storm passed, Marshfield Town Engineer Rod Procaccino …
After the storm passed, Marshfield Town Engineer Rod Procaccino directed this emergency repair, accomplished with large boulders originally intended for nearby revetment work. Town crews along this stretch of shoreline maintain the aging seawall as best they can when funds are available.
The back of the house near the failed seawall, where wind-driven…
The back of the house near the failed seawall, where wind-driven water did major damage.
Elevated homes a few lots away from the large seawall breach sur…
Elevated homes a few lots away from the large seawall breach survived better, but still experienced some damage.
The weather ripped some vinyl siding off the side wall of this h…
The weather ripped some vinyl siding off the side wall of this house near the Marshfield seawall breach.
Farther from the shore in Harwich on Cape Cod, framing contracto…
Farther from the shore in Harwich on Cape Cod, framing contractor Mike Hill and carpenter Russ Laffin shoveled out the job site after the storm. With more snow on the way, Hill said, he would probably spend a few days on some inside work at another location.
Snow covered the partially framed Harwich addition to nearly the…
Snow covered the partially framed Harwich addition to nearly the depth of the windowsills after the storm.
Marshfield oceanfront homeowner Joe Hackett, himself also a cont…
Marshfield oceanfront homeowner Joe Hackett, himself also a contractor, stands by the door of his heavily damaged garage at his house next to the ocean, near a badly damaged section of seawall. The flood during the storm washed out a plastic tub full of cordless tools that Hackett had stored in the garage in case he needed to repair the house, along with 100 pounds of framing nails, he said.
A view of the damaged back wall of contractor Joe Hackett’s ga…
A view of the damaged back wall of contractor Joe Hackett’s garage next to his oceanfront house in Marshfield. Despite Hackett’s temporary emergency repair, town officials had tagged the structure as unsafe.
Contractor Joe Hackett stands next to his oceanfront house in Ma…
Contractor Joe Hackett stands next to his oceanfront house in Marshfield. Hackett stayed in the house through the storm, while pounding waves threw water higher than the roof. His wooden plank storm shutters protected the first-floor windows and kept the interior of the house dry, but basement windows at the side of the house broke and allowed water to soak the basement. An ocean-view deck on grade and a bulwark at the front of the house disappeared into the water, but Hackett credits the bulwark for helping to protect the house before it failed.
A view under the porch of Hackett’s neighbor’s house shows t…
A view under the porch of Hackett’s neighbor’s house shows the structural repair Hackett effected when the porch collapsed in a previous storm. Hackett says he has repaired his own house eight times after damaging storms.
Crashing waves damaged the cedar shingle siding on Hackett’s h…
Crashing waves damaged the cedar shingle siding on Hackett’s house during the storm in the pre-dawn hours. The shingles have been pushed up and snapped, but Grace Ice and Water Shield used as underlayment appears to have protected the wall framing and sheathing.
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Shingles snapped by wave action during the storm on Joe Hackett’s house in Marshfield, Mass.
Wooden storm shutters hung from metal hardware and dogged down w…
Wooden storm shutters hung from metal hardware and dogged down with a 2×6 bar protected Hackett’s first-story windows from crashing waves during the blizzard. Wind-driven spray and snow coated the underside of the porch roof.
A closer look at the storm shutter hardware. This storm shutter …
A closer look at the storm shutter hardware. This storm shutter protected the house during the storm, keeping water out of the first floor as homeowner Joe Hackett rode out the storm on site.
A closer look at the metal bracket that holds a shimmed 2×6 bar …
A closer look at the metal bracket that holds a shimmed 2×6 bar in place to secure the storm shutters.
Rime ice and wind-driven snow coat the underside of the porch ro…
Rime ice and wind-driven snow coat the underside of the porch roof. Freezing weather and more snow continued to hammer New England after the January blizzard.
A view of the damaged Marshfield seawall from the beach below. A…
A view of the damaged Marshfield seawall from the beach below. At high tide during the storm, waves overtopped the seawall and tore chunks of concrete from its cap. Crashing surf reached as high as the roof ridges of these buildings, eyewitnesses say. The house at center was severely damaged, with water crashing through the front windows and doors and continuing through the house to blow out windows on the landward side of the building.
A closer view of the badly damaged house directly behind the fai…
A closer view of the badly damaged house directly behind the failed Marshfield seawall. Apparently, these rolling metal storm shutters could not protect the home’s windows from the battering wind-driven ocean waves, which deposited large stone onto yards at several places along the shoreline.
The snowstorm that struck the Northeast in late January may have been a letdown in New York City. But in Massachusetts and Maine, the blizzard of 2015 more than lived up to its billing. Some towns around Boston received record snow totals by the end of January — with February bringing the promise of even more.
For New England builders, the weather is a setback. At Mike Horgan’s zero-energy addition in Harwich on Cape Cod, framers Mike Hill and Russ Laffin were shoveling two feet of snow from around their half-built frame (below). “If it keeps snowing,” said Hill, “we might go work on another job for a while.”
But for the Massachusetts coast, the snow wasn’t the only concern. South of Boston, the January nor’easter slapped the shoreline towns of Scituate, Marshfield, and Duxbury with high water and heavy surf. Antiquated seawalls failed in several spots, and a few homes along the shore took heavy damage. JLC’s Coastal Connection visited Marshfield for a first-hand look at the destruction.
Marshfield’s concrete seawall was built by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) during the 1930s. Today, towns along the shore maintain the wall with piecemeal efforts as funding is available. Coastal Connection met Marshfield Town Engineer Rod Procaccino (below) inspecting a temporary repair to a section of seawall that had been ripped out by the wave action.
“Fortunately, we had a contractor here working just prior to this storm hitting, doing a revetment repair just north of here,” said Procaccino. “So we had a stockpile of rock, and I just directed them to fill in that hole.” Further along the beach, said Procaccino, workers were repairing another breach. “We have steel plates going in there tonight,” he said. “They’re going to put sandbags behind the steel plate, to get us through the winter.”
Homes near the breaches took major hits (see slideshow). Waves tore off siding, smashed through windows, and in a few places, ripped out walls. A few houses were condemned. Not surprisingly, elevated structures appear to have fared better than homes built at grade. At one house, breakaway panels had done their job (below), allowing water to enter the building’s basement level but leaving the structure otherwise intact. Local contractor Brian Damon was on site with his client to thaw out frozen pipes and make temporary repairs, but he told Coastal Connection, “We’re going to jack this house up this year.”
