Sandy’s impact focus of Maine Beaches Conference

SOUTH PORTLAND (AP) — The impact of Superstorm Sandy and the lessons Maine can learn from the storm will be a focus of 2013 Maine Beaches Conference.

Friday’s event at Southern Maine Community College in South Portland is expected to draw as many as 200 coastal property owners, recreational beach users, volunteer beach monitors, scientists, public officials and others.

The daylong symposium features sessions on tourism, erosion control, pollution and other beach-related topics, with the opening session focusing on Sandy.

Sandy’s biggest problem was the storm surge with waters flooding 90,000 structures and damaging some 25,000 vehicles beyond repair.

: FILE – In this Oct. 29, 2013 file photo, Caleb Lavoie, 17, of Dayton, Maine, front, and Curtis Huard, 16, of Arundel, Maine, leap out of the way as a large wave crashes over a seawall on the Atlantic Ocean during the early stages of Superstorm Sandy, in Kennebunk, Maine. Much of the destruction from Sandy was caused by the storm’s surge, when rising seawater pushed by powerful winds came ashore and brought widespread flooding and damage to New York and New Jersey. The impacts of the storm, and what lessons Maine can learn from it, will be a focus of the 2013 Maine Beaches Conference. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)