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The Pines took a beating from last night’s fierce storm. The ocean washed over the dunes at points, even reaching non-oceanfront houses. Dunes in many areas were flattened, particularly on the west end, and there was scattered property damage.
Despite the flooding, however, no houses were lost, and the community on the whole emerged intact, thankfully. Our beach is not gone, but the erosion has taken a major toll, crippling the mutual aid system and blocking access points into the community. Additional storms will pose a significant threat.
As we braced for the storm this week, we received some much-needed good news, which if we are lucky will become great news: a possible coming together of a stopgap measure to bring approximately 182,000 cubic yards of sand to the most damaged areas in the next month or so to shore up our beach and dunes. If it happens, it will go a long way toward enlarging our beach, bolstering our dunes and protecting our community in the coming months. It is not yet a done deal, though.
Over the past year, the Army Corps of Engineers, the key player in all this, has maintained a stony silence while storm after storm has battered our beach, even as the agency geared up for major replenishment project on the island just a few miles west (work began last month). But the pressure campaign we launched last fall finally brought them to the table in December, and this Tuesday they indicated their cooperation to allow for the necessary permits to enable a project to proceed.
With a huge bureaucratic hurdle potentially cleared by this breakthrough, negotiations have begun with Great Lakes, the dredging company currently working in the western communities, to come east. There are still significant logistical obstacles to surmount – the company may or may not have enough time to perform the work before its commitments to future projects kick in. But the Corp’s apparent cooperation is a victory that will pay dividends in the short and long term.
A winter/spring project will not obviate the need for the larger repair effort we have been pushing the Corps to perform – the agency is still deliberating on the most recent application. But we proposed a project in the meantime that, if realized, would go a long way to protecting our community until the agency finally fulfills its obligation to repair the beach, as they are required to do. We call it a stopgap project because the cubic yards of sand would be slightly more than a fifth of the size of the huge Corps project from 2019.
The eastern communities, the Pines included, would be required to pay for the stopgap project, though we will work hard in the spring legislative season to lobby the governor and legislator to reimburse us. Brookhaven would likely float a bond to finance the project, whose payments would come through the special Pines Erosion Control District that was established years ago, when our community routinely self-funded our beach projects. I will provide more details on the financing if and when the project is finalized and the financing mechanisms are known.
The events of this week have come about as a result of a monumental political and public pressure campaign by FIPPOA, dedicated Pines residents and business owners, our emergency service officials, and Actum, the public affairs firm brought on by FIPPOA and the Seaview Association. As the campaign progressed, virtually every elected official with any jurisdiction over Fire Island - both U.S. senators, the governor, the Suffolk County executive, the Brookhaven town supervisor, and our local councilman, Neil Foley – came together to get a beach project off the ground in the Pines and other eastern Fire Island communities. Each of those officials have staff members who have worked tirelessly on our behalf to move this mountain.
As last night’s storm illustrated, we are in a race against time. I hope that we can pull off this stopgap project this winter. If not, we will find yet other ways to protect our community.
And once again, let me thank Pines residents – particularly Bob Anderson and Karen Boss – for providing up-to-date information today regarding the storm’s impact. And let me also remind you of the February 12th fundraiser I strongly encourage you to support, and if possible attend, for Senator Gillibrand, who has been extremely helpful in our months-long campaign. The event has been organized by Pines residents and we will be able to ask her questions about the situation. Please use this link to participate.
I will keep you updated as events develop.
Best,
Henry
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