Quiksilver Pro Long Beach, NY

Residents of Long Beach NY have been watching the preparations taking place for the Quiksilver Pro New York - Long Beach - Sept 1-15 Surfing Tournament for well over a month.These giant wrap around decals advertising the event now cover all the towns ticket booths at the beach entrances.

The town is still showing the effects of Hurricane Irene's recent visit.

This decking at one of the beach ramps was torn up by the storm.

All the sand washed into the streets from the storm surge has to be cleaned up.

Chris Morrissey of the Beach Maintenance Department helping in the clean up effort.

The foundation of the Lifeguard station on National Blvd. prepared to reseat the structure. The station was washed off the foundation and came to rest against the boardwalk.

This is the crane which was going to be used to hoist the station back onto its foundation.

I think this is the newscasters booth.

One of the structures erected for the event on National Blvd. beach. The Allegria Hotel is in the background.

The structure for the contest to pick the next Roxy Girl.

Cleanup underway on National Blvd. and Broadway.The Allegria Hotel ( on right ) where many of the surfing community are staying during the event.

A beach mummy buried in the sand amusing himself with building sand pyramids till the surfing conditions pick up.

Hurricane Irene Long Beach,NY

I thought I'd share a few pictures of how Hurricane Irene affected us here at Long Beach, NY. Some people are annoyed that Irene didn't live up to the weather report hype.

Well, it was more than enough storm for me!I'm glad we didn't get a full category 1 Hurricane come through our area.

This is the ramp leading to the beach on our block at the height of the storm during high tide.

This is the same ramp as the storm surge washes in.

This is my wife going down the ramp. She wanted her picture with the water in the background.

She didn't realize the depth of the water because of the foam covering it. It had filled her boots.

I hollered to her to get out of there but she said take the picture first. A second later she got walloped with a surge of water that was almost up to her waist!

This photo is a split second before she got knocked off her feet. She managed to hang onto the railing and I ran down and dragged her back up the ramp.

This is the boardwalk on our corner showing the flooding caused by the storm. We were lucky that the dune sand and wooden planking held!

The surf broke through the boardwalk planking on this street.

You can see where the water washed over the dune under this section of the boardwalk and then smashed through the wood planking.

This couple were on the Lindell Blvd. beach checking out the water. Even though the storm had passed and the tide had receded the surf was still kicking up.

The decking around the concession stand on Grand Blvd. was broken apart by the storm.

One of the metal lifeguard chairs which are set out just beyond the high tide mark washed up the beach by the force of the surf.

The playground at Magnolia Blvd. showing where the storm surge punched through the cinder block wall.

My Mom standing on the boardwalk at National Blvd.

National Blvd. and the Allegria Hotel completely flooded!

A tree on our corner felled by the storm. Our area of town was without power for a day and a half. We were very fortunate. We got no flooding or damage to our home.