Anyone reading the Times weather page in the ten days leading up to Sunday, October 18 had an excuse for being anxious. The maritime forecast consistently reported winds from the northeast anywhere between 10 and 30 mph, “with higher gusts,” for more than a week straight.  Those winds not only pummeled the newly restored beaches, it made Fire Island Inlet, already far from efficient at draining Great South Bay because of sand clogging the channel, even more of a problem: the tides flow in but don’t completely drain, so the next tide piles up behind the first, and so on. Television news showed places like Freeport and Bayville on the bay’s north side coping with serious street flooding as a result.

But tides piling up in the bay pose another threat as well: if there is a low, flat area (and Fire Island has several of them) once there is enough water in the bay it won’t wait around for the tide to go out, it will seek the quickest way to the ocean, and that means through the island. It didn’t happen this time but it sure pointed up the need for the Corps of Engineers and New York State to get together on an emergency program for maintenance dredging at the inlets, especially the Fire Island Inlet.

As for the ocean side, Fire Island did not escape unscathed; and one shudders to think of what might have happened but for the 2009 community nourishment projects. From east to west, Bob Spencer (Davis Park) reported very high tides and mainland flooding. On the ocean side, he reports severe scarping in the persistent “erosion hot spot” that afflicts about 500 feet toward the western part of that community. Unless a period of westerly winds rebuilds the area, more nor’easters “could be real nasty,” Bob says.

Fire Island Pines experienced severe erosion at the eastern end, according to Jay Pagano. One set of stairs was lost. In another context, Steve Keehn, the ’09 project engineer, noted that the eastern ends of all of the projects are exposed to northeast winds, and the experience at the Pines seems to bear this out.

Ocean Bay Park came through “in pretty good shape”, according to Steven Jaffee. Stairs and fencing are all still standing, although a lot of sand was lost, he added.  He noted that Seaview (which adjoins Ocean Bay Park to the west) seems to have lost several hundred feet of sand fencing.

Ocean Beach had flooding up as far as Midway, Love the Plumber reports. There was a foot or more of water near the water tower, but the area near the court house was dry by comparison.

Robbins Rest, to the west of Ocean Beach, was very pleased with the performance of its new bulkhead. Still, water came up from the bay about 100 yards, the Association reported.  

If you have further information, please add it in a comment to this post.

Patchogue, New York— On September 17, 2009, Fire Island National Seashore

began another season of a long-standing deer immunocontraceptive research

project on Fire Island, to help determine if deer populations on the island

can be kept in check by injecting female deer (does) with a birth control

vaccine. 
read more from "Fall Deer Darting Program in Progress"

    

The following post is by courtesy of the Ocean Beach Association’s “Notes From the Beach”:

Vision Fire Island: Photo Scavenger Hunt [the deadline for submitting photos has been extended to October 16]

Get Involved: New General Management Plan for Fire Island

The National Park Service has begun working on a new General Management Plan (GMP) for Fire Island National Seashore. The current Plan, adopted in 1977, is at best, outdated.  Public scoping meetings were conducted in 2006, and foundation workshops have begun. You can sign up for the park’s E-Newsletter to get periodic updates of GMP progress and other current park news.  You also can share your ideas and opinions about the future management of the park and its programs as GMP planning continues. 

As part of this planning, FINS has created a public participation process called Vision Planning.  This process includes a Photo Scavenger Hunt, which is described below.  No one knows the joys of Fire Island better than its residents; therefore, we urge you to snap your favorite Fire Island sites, those that you feel show the Fire Island you most cherish and submit them for inclusion in the Scavenger Hunt.  Complete directions are posted at: www.visionfireislandd.com

The following NEWSDAY story appeared on July 8.

The new $4.6-million Fire Island ferry terminal will open in Patchogue by Jan. 1, federal officials announced yesterday.

The long-awaited terminal, which has been in the planning stage for years and for which ground was broken in the fall, will replace the old station off West Avenue, officials said. The terminal could open in time for Patchogue’s holiday boat parade, held around Thanksgiving, if all goes well, National Park Service officials said.
read more from "FINS Gets a New Patchogue Terminal"

.To FIA Directors, Members and Friends

There will be much to discuss at this year’s Summer Meeting at Fire Island Pines on July 18 – and we expect to have the right people doing the talking. I have spoken with County Executive Levy and he is trying to clear his schedule so that he can be with us.
read more from "FIA Summer Meeting at the Pines"

Fire Island Homeowners Present Certificates to

Jeffrey Kassner, Marie Michel and Barbara Wiplush

The Fire Island Association (FIA) and a delegation of homeowners presented certificates of appreciation to three Brookhaven town employees at a meeting in Brookhaven Supervisor Mark Lesko’s office on June 12.

From left; Councilman Mazzei, Barbara Wiplush, Jerry Stoddard, Marie Michel, Deputy Supervisor Walsh, Supervisor Lesko. 
read more from "Fire Island Homeowners Present Certificates"

The following is from Fire Island National Seashore.

For more information go to the Links page and click on Fire Island

National Seashore/newsreleases.

Beach Nourishment Projects To Begin on Fire Island;
      Work Expected to be Completed by the end of March 2009
      Several beach nourishment projects on Fire Island are scheduled to

      begin by late December or early January.  The projects, which are

      being undertaken by Suffolk County and eleven Fire Island

      communities, are expected to be completed by March 31, 2009.   
read more from "News From FINS on Community Beach Protection Projects"
    

ON SPENCER’S POINT

How Oceans Attract Us

By Bob Spencer

Alluring. Mysterious. Relaxing. Inspiring. Awesome. This is what an ocean offers.

And — sniffing the salt laden air, as one approaches the seaside, just adds to an ocean’s appeal.

I first became inspired by the ocean when in my teens, and I would sit by a summer sea in the evening and watch a full moon slowly rise out of the Atlantic. I promised myself then and there that I would seek to recreate such a feeling over my life span. Because it made my mind come alive, it becomes a catalyst of the imagination.

An ocean can reveal its infinite beauty – it can also raise its haunches in powerful strokes of stormy winds and tides to cause a show of respect.

read more from "How Oceans Attract Us"

ON SPENCER’S POINT

On the Nature of Fire Island

By
Bob Spencer

On a summer afternoon, I sometimes can imagine myself
suspended in mid-air about twenty feet above the oceanside
dunes of Fire Island.

Fire Island has many moods of a
simple order. On a clear sunny day, I can see many miles out to the blue sea
and miles along its sandy and grass-green shores as well.
read more from "On the Nature of Fire Island"

By Bob Spencer

Many readers will be aware of some of the story about how Fire Island was saved from the paving of a highway, atop a sand-dike that had been first proposed by Robert Moses back in 1924, when he first became head of the Long Island State Park Commission. With each major storm after that, Bob Moses came back time and again with his same idea. But here, this reporter will try to set down a bit more on how the people of Fire Island, and just across the Great South Bay pulled off a little miracle.
read more from "How Fire Island was Saved from being Paved Over"