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”

Kismet is Fire Island’s westernmost party hub. Kismet’s young New Yorker singles scene hosts never-ending happy hours, disco dancing, and boisterous house parties. A popular Fire Island summer share house destination, Kismet is home to many seasoned Fire Islanders. Kismet nightlife is upheld by two popular bayside bar and grills, The Inn and Surf’s Out. Kismet has a beautiful 100-slip commercial marina that is always packed with boaters. This quaint country-like atmosphere is a refuge from the seemingly congested beaches and towns to its east.

The location that would become Kismet was home to the Dominy House Hotel, the first hotel on Fire Island. Dominy had been one of the Keepers at the old Fire Island Lighthouse, but was ultimately discharged from his duties for entertaining guests to the extent that his Keeper duties became secondary. The rustic hotel was built by Felix Dominy in 1844, and was attractive to hunters and fishermen. When the colossal Surf Hotel was constructed to the east of Dominy House in 1857, obstructing its view of the Lighthouse, business began to falter. Dominy House would be destroyed by fire under questionable circumstances in 1903. An excavated chimney-base attributed to Dominy House stands a few hundred feet from the Surf’s Out as a monument to Fire Island’s early heritage.

After 1925 Kismet began not as one, but three separate communities: Seabay Beach, Lighthouse Shores and Kismet proper. They ultimately merged together to form a single hamlet, but a walk through the neighborhood of roughly 300 homes still bears evidence that the separate communities were stitched together after the fact by the layout of the walkways.

Kismet is accessible via the Kismet ferry line out of Bay Shore, NY. However one advantage of being the most western of the Fire Island communities is that one does not need a ferry to get there. Many visitors park in Field 5 where Kismet is just a short walk east.

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