Help in a Hard Time
In September 2023 – after nearly 10 years of planning, clearing, and construction – Darin Schwartz, his wife Dawn Elliott, and their two children moved into the family’s “almost-completed” dream home on a 500-acre forested lot in the township of Avon, Maine. Set among the state’s western foothills, the house was 2.2 miles from the nearest public road, off the grid, and accessible by a private road that crossed a bridge spanning Mount Blue Stream.
Schwartz describes the spot as magical.
But just three months after the family moved into their home, both the road and the bridge were gone, washed out by what came to be known as the Grinch Storm of 2023.
“We had backups for our backup systems,” Schwartz said of the disaster precautions he had taken when planning and building his house. “We had over 15 years of planning on how to live in the woods, 10 years of planning this house. But never had we considered a biblical flood hitting us.”
Published in Northern Woodlands on September 21, 2024
