Hurricane Sandy Anniversary

Were getting close to the one year anniversary of Hurricane Sandy. Here in Long Beach things are slowly returning to normal. I wanted to share some photographs I took this year.

Here is my friend Chris Morrissey who has worked in the Beach Maintenance Department for the last 33 years.

As a sign of their appreciation for his years of service the City of Long Beach honored Chris by having him lay the first beam of the boardwalk rebuilding project.

 

It was fun to be in attendance to commemorate the occasion and to watch my friend be the center of attention!

 The City had a celebration October 25, 2013 to mark the finish of the boardwalk rebuilding project. Govenor Cuomo attended and helped set the last board in place.

While it is great to have the boardwalk back it is a sad fact that many Long Beach residents aren't back in their storm damaged homes yet! Many are waiting on funds to rebuild while tangled up in bureaucratic red tape.

As one walks through the West End of town many homes remain shuttered such as this bungalow on Wyoming Avenue. My grandparents owned it in the 60's and my family spent many great Summers there!

On the same street the home that belonged to our friends the Donnely's has been lifted to meet Fema regulations and it now towers over the bungalow next to it.



It's weird but the one place I go in town where I'm not reminded of the storm is the beach! I try to visit it every day. You never know what you'll find.

  On this particular day we had seaweed that was knee deep on some beaches.

On another day while out walking my wife and I came across this marriage proposal created in the sand for a gal named Gabby. Unfortunately we missed her reaction to it.

 

 While out fishing one morning I found this porpoise washed up. I came across several of them dead this Summer.

 We also had some whales in our area chasing after baitfish. I was lucky enough to spot one not far off this jetty breaching with his mouth open after bait! His head looked to be the size of a VW Bug!

Occasionally I'll find a lure on the beach. I enjoy doctoring them up. These two are my recent finds.

This one got a new paint job just in time for the Fall run of stripers!

This lure I'm going to dress with an eel skin.

The skins been added now all it needs is a new sharp hook.

When the water enters the empty tail portion of the skin it returns to its natural size and the lure imparts a life like appearance to the eel skin.



 

Starting Over

Things are slowly returning to normal here in Long Beach after the hurricane. I refuse to call THAT storm "Super Storm Sandy". Leave it to the news services to come up with that moniker!

Monstrously powerful? Horribly destructive? Maybe. But Super? Trust me there was nothing "Super" about that storm or its aftermath!

My wife and I decided to not buy gifts for each other this Christmas. Funds are tight and we still need to buy a car. But Christmas morning my wife handed me a package.  

Her next gift was designating the kitchen table for my new workspace. I guess she got tired of seeing me mope around without sculpting.

  It will be good to get some clay in my hands again!

  Besides sculpting part of my day always involves visiting the shoreline. But it doesn't matter where you walk. There is no place that wasn't impacted by the hurricane.

 

In the center of town is Mount Sandy. The name people have given to the 4 story high collection of sand washed through out the town the night of the storm.  

The sand has to be carted to an area to be sifted of debris.  

The storm sand is a darker color due to the combination of bay mud, sewage and God knows what else. After sifting the beach maintenance workers collect it in dump trucks and deposit it along the eroded areas of the beach.   Next up is demolishing the remnants of our storm damaged boardwalk!

Hurricane Sandy Wipeout

Hurricane Sandy hit us a good wallop here in Long Beach, NY. For several days as I fished the surf leading up to the storm the sweep grew increasingly stronger.

My wife Diane on our corner the morning of the approach of the storm  

The beach ramp on our corner after Sandy with Diane reaching up as high as the surge came.  

The roofs of the public bathroom and food concession on Grand Blvd. barely visible behind a sand dune barricade.

Diane next to the foundation of one of the buildings. The tin roof of the food concession was found a block north of the beach.

The concrete slab and cinder block wall under the boardwalk demolished by the storm. The beach suffered terrible erosion!

 The section of wooden jetty Diane is standing next to in the photo was never visible before having been completely buried under sand! The area around the lifeguard shack in the center of town was hit hard.

Last year Hurricane Irene pushed the lifeguard shack off its foundation. All Hurricane Sandy left was the foundation!  

The evening off the storm my Mom, Diane and I were having dinner. I had an eye on our house barometer as well as my tide clock.

We were eating and watching Dexter as the rain intensified and the barometer started dropping fast.

  Water started meandering slowly into the street from the west end of the block.

The barometer needle started nose diving and I remember smelling a funny odor like wet screens or someone ironing. Suddenly water started rushing around from the east end of the block!    Within a few minutes the street light went dark soon after a power transformer blew plunging the town into darkness!

As the needle on the tide clock marked the arrival of high tide the level of the water rose and filled my car. The dome light, turn signals and parking lights started flashing.

The water mark on my car. The water had risen high enough inside to fill my center console and my cup holders! The water continued to rise till it covered our lawn and was up to our first step. Around the side of our house it cascaded down the cellar steps filling our basement stairwell. In the center of the street it was like a raging river of chest deep water and debris rushing westward.

Around 9:30 pm I checked outside with my flashlight and saw the water had begone to recede. Around six inches of our walkway had reappeared. I was never so happy to see a patch of pavement in my life!

During the night it was eerie to hear furniture and stuff floating in the basement bumping around. The next day the water was so deep I had to put my waders on to go down and flip off the main circuit breaker in case the power came back on.

Diane is pointing to the water mark on a storm window from our basement. We had 33" of water in the basement - the stairwell had 54"! My studio workshop is destroyed. The storm wiped me out! I lost my kiln, compressor all my tools and supplies. Mine and my mother's car our totaled. As is the washer/dryer, freezer, burner and water heater. Long Beach looks like a wasteland.

There are piles of garbage and debris almost everywhere. Some neighbors have noticed rats starting to scavenge the piles at night. Totaled cars litter the streets their plates removed and insurance adjustment tags stuck on them.

We were without power, heat, and clean water or sanitation/sewage for 13 days. There was no phone or cell usage so we were without communication with the outside world. There was a 7pm to 6 am curfew in effect due to looting and a few shootings in town. We heard a couple shots fired one night behind our house at 2 am!

It is going to take a long time for the city of Long Beach and our community to recover from this! We were fortunate to get help from Samaritans Purse volunteers to help tear down our basement walls and remove our washer dryer. Here is my Mom posing with the crew outside her home.

Diane and my Mom in our gutted basement

The "new normal" in Long Beach as my wife calls it. Totaled cars and debris.