The Northeast just can't seem to catch a break. It started raining on Friday and here we are on Monday morning and it has yet to stop. But the rains have been only part of this storm sequence; the winds have been gusting at gale force since Saturday afternoon. Gusts of 54 mph were reported in Wainscott, the hamlet just east of Bridgehampton. All of this naturally wreaks havoc on our beaches, which were battered with nor'easters last fall, and snow storms and squalls all winter.
The beaches on the east end are our treasures and every town works diligently to protect them as best they can. Snow fences are common on all of our beaches and are strung along the dunes with the hopes that they'll fight off the ocean's relentless waves and high tides, and act as a retaining wall for our precious sand dunes. They truly are our front line soldiers. They take tremendous beatings as you can see but hold their ground until the bitter end.
At one beach, the town even fortified the dunes with used Christmas trees, burying them under tons of sand and building the dunes out beyond their core. As you can see in the slide show these efforts were all for naught with this week-end's storms. These fortified dunes were clawed apart by the waves and winds, sending the sand out to sea and littering the beach with the dunes' protectors.
Slideshow photos by Claudia Ward and Peter Tooker 2010 All Rights Reserved
The news is reporting trees and power lines down, and outages across the northeast and I'm afraid it's probably affected many of you who visit this blog. Peter and I hope you all have weathered the storm and come through on the other side, not too much worse for wear.
Note: Remember to click on the number 360 and change it to 480 for the best quality "view". Also enlarge the pictures by either clicking on the box that looks like arrows going in four directions, next to the numbers mentioned above, or by double clicking on the slide.
Have you got any storm stories you want to share? Leave a comment and let us know how you fared.
Great pictures, Claudia & Peter. I loved the music too...it really added to the sad site of the beaches.
Posted by: Sarah | Thursday, March 18, 2010 at 10:37 PM
Incredible!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So sad yet in an odd way beautiful at the same time. This particular storm should be an easy one to remember the date of :).
Posted by: Sally | Monday, March 15, 2010 at 11:35 PM
Amazing footage!
Posted by: Vickie | Monday, March 15, 2010 at 06:50 PM
What amazing photos of a very sad sight. I am disturbed to see such beach erosion and the trees remind me of pictures of Normandy.
The destruction, however, will not last and the beach will revive as we have seen from past hurricanes and nor'easters. Great video!
Posted by: carol | Monday, March 15, 2010 at 06:37 PM