By Emma Bouthillette 

Staff Writer

They are raising more than roofs on Intervale Road in Kennebunk, they are raising whole houses. The loop of Intervale Road by Kennebunk River has turned into a neighborhood construction site while eight homes are raised two feet above the high water mark.

Town Manager Barry Tibbets said after flooding from the 2006 Mother’s Day storm and a stronger storm on Patriot’s Day in 2007, residents asked for more help than just cleaning up. 

“We applied for a Hazard Mitigation Grant to change the housing and further prevent it from flooding again,” Tibbets said. 

Kennebunk received $1.1 million from state and federal funds, which are being used to raise the houses. Construction began in mid-June and is expected to be complete before winter. Another $375,000 in town funds were approved by voters and used to purchase two homes that were excessively damaged, said Tibbets, and the fire department used those homes for training.

Not every resident on Intervale Road sustained severe damage from flooding, though some had close calls, including Mary Foster, who lives amongst the homes being raised and is next on the construction list.

“FEMA decided since my house stood in the river, it should be lifted to prevent further damage,” Foster said. 

During the Mother’s Day storm, water surrounded her property and she said it was as if she was on an island. During the second storm, the river came up to her front porch, but never made it inside. She said she only had a little bit of water in her basement and her dryer vent flooded, preventing her from completing a load of laundry. 

“I never thought the river would reach my house. This house is not even classified as a flood plain zone. Hardly anybody had flood insurance because of it. We all have it now – most of us took it out after the first flood,” Foster said. 

She said she has been watching workers raising the houses, which is a day’s worth of work for each one.

“The actual lifting moves so slowly, it is almost imperceptible. They lift the house for not quite two minutes, and then stack piers under it in a log cabin style. Then they lift a bit more and slide more beams under,” Foster said. 

She said when the house is resting on the temporary supports, workers begin clearing the old foundation, excavating underneath the house and laying the new foundation.

As construction time approaches for her house, Foster has moved all her belongings from the living room to her bedroom on the other side of the house to prevent them from being covered in construction dust when a fireplace  and its chimney are destroyed when her house is raised. She said other people have left their belongings in place,  citing a home down the street with all the patio furniture still on the deck. 

Foster said if she wants to replace the fireplace and chimney after the raising, it will be at her own expense and is concerned about having to replace rotted beams in her garage and at the back of her home, also at her own expense. 

“Any expense not directly connected to elevating the home is at the owner’s expense,” Foster said.

But she said she is lucky. Neighbors had to tear out sheetrock, insulation and flooring after both floods, Foster said. 

“I’ve gotten to know my neighbors a lot better through this,” she said. “We all had to turn out to town meetings to get this project done.”

Tibbets said since the storms, gauges have been installed to monitor the ebb and flow of the river, but no major changes have been done to the bank of the river otherwise. 

Foster said she’ll be happy once the construction is done, because her once quiet neighborhood is now seeing more traffic as people drive around Intervale Road to see houses hoisted in the air.