Fire Island, New York has seen its share of hurricanes and nor’easters many of these storms have done significant damage over the years and caused major beach erosion. One thing is certain there will always been another storm and Fire Island will bounce back no matter how significant the damage.
The big storm of the 2012 season is what the media is calling a “Frankenstorm:, the combination of two major storm fronts.
“We’re not trying to hype it,” National Weather Service meteorologist Paul Kocin tells Bloomberg News. “What we’re seeing in some of our models is a storm at an intensity that we have not seen in this part of the country in the past century.”
As a life long Fire Islander I can tell you, these storms are always frightening. The wind will be so intense that the houses will sway, the waves in the ocean will pound so hard they will sound like thunder, and the flooding in town will be a few feet at minimum. Suffolk County called for a mandatory evacuation of Fire Island, and it always best to head for cover.
FireIsland.com does have one staff member on the Island, who opted to ride out the storm. The power on Fire Island has been shut down, and cell service is spotty but we will try to keep everyone updated as to the condition on the island as the storm passes through.
We have put together and will keep updated the photo album below. Many of these pictures are courtesy of the brave members of law enforcement and rescue services at OBPD and OBFD.
Sandy Arrives.
A few videos from Fire Island during Hurricane Sandy.
Steven Acierno a Verizon worker on Fire Island, posted a few amazing videos that capture the destruction. I asked him to describe what he saw, his response was:
“I can honestly say I have never seen anything like this. Huge waves coming ashore on the bay that were no less than 12 or 15 feet I swear to God this is going to be a very sad thing for a lot of people”