Residents to rebuild after rogue wave beats down on Trout River TROUT RIVER KATHERINE HUDSON The Western Star

A rogue wave, estimated to be about six feet damaged boats and a wharf Sunday in Trout River. — Photo courtesy of Fred Crocker

When Ralph Crocker woke up on Sunday morning he did not expect to face the hectic scene down by the docks. He said a rogue wave rose up and beat down on the shoreline, flipping over two boats and ripping through a wharf.

“I seen most of it Sunday morning between eight and nine o’clock,” Crocker said. “What I saw was the water rise up to the edge of the breakwater, rose up four to six feet. It rose up and broke.”

Fred Crocker took pictures of the aftermath and, along with some of the community, hauled the boats out of the water.

“I was out with the men getting the boats out of the water ... I never saw the wave itself, but it was pretty hectic for awhile there. The boys came with a backhoe and took the (sunken) boat right out of the water.

The owner of the wharf and one of the boats did not see the wave either, but saw the outcome of the fluke wave.

“I seen my boat bottom up down the brook. She (the wave) tore the wood off the boat and lifted the motor up. She was my boat. She’s down under the wharf to keep safe now right now,” said owner Allan Payne.

He went out to tow the boat in when the water was calm.

“She tore of some of my wharf, too. I’m going to replace it after awhile,” he said.

Payne said he thinks it’s been about 30 or 40 years since there was a wave as big as Sunday’s.

He said there’s nothing that can be done but rebuild what’s been broken.

“Build it back up. Fix it up. That’s all you can do, right?”