Hurricane Irene rolled up the Eastern seaboard causing widespread damage along it’s entire path. The severe flooding,  power outages, downed trees and damage to homes was something that has not been seen for a very long time, especially along the New Jersey and southern New York shorelines. I am writing this post from my perspective as a home and boat owner on Long Island and my dealings with Hurricane Irene.

With all the weather computer models pointing to a Long Island landfall during the weekend of 8/27 through 8/28 our preparations for the storm began back on the Tuesday prior. All outside patio and pool furniture was stored away. Shopping for enough supplies to carry us through a week was completed as well. With the house and surrounding property secured to the best of our ability my attention then turned to the boat.

A call to my marina, Seaborn Marina in Bay Shore NY, got me on the schedule to have the boat pulled and blocked in the yard as the forecast called for storm surges of 6-10 ft above normal. Combine this forecast with the fact that we were on a new moon and the expectation was that the Great South Bay waters would rise too high to keep the boat safely in her slip. The boat was securely blocked on Saturday morning in advance of Irene’s arrival. We completed some last minute tasks and then hunkered down and home hoping for the best.

Boats in the Yard Waiting for the Hurricane

I spent the majority of Saturday night watching several LARGE oak trees in our yard swaying back and forth in the building winds and praying they would stay upright. Thankfully, they did. Hurricane Irene made landfall Sunday morning on the extreme western end of Long Island and was technically labelled a Tropical Storm as she came ashore. Whatever they called it, the conditions were both amazing and fearful at the same time. Our neighborhood managed to maintain electric service through the worst of the storm and televised reports had sustained winds in the upwards of 65 mph across Long Island with locally higher gusts.

Despite all the news agencies advising against venturing out I could not stand thinking about how the boat had fared at the marina so off I went. Driving around trees and downed power lines gave me a chance to second guess this decision but I continued toward the boat. The major highways were wide open and the ride was easy taking it nice and slow with the heavy winds howling against my Dodge 2500 pickup.

Arriving in Bay Shore, the scene was like a tornado with trees down everywhere you looked. While turning into the marina I peeked down the street which ended at the Town marina and it was submerged. I could see folks walking through water up to their thighs. It was this side that had me most worried about how the boat made out.

I was VERY happy to see that while the water in my marina was to the top of the bulkhead, it was not spilling over any further than that. Walking through the maze of boats that had been stored I came to mine and was THRILLED to find her standing on the blocks just as she was left. What a relief this was!!! The howling winds had pretty much stripped the local trees of their leaves and the exterior and cockpit was littered with them but that was the extent my boat experienced. A quick peek around the yard showed every single boat was in great shape, and those that had elected to stay in the water all survived Hurricane Irene as well.

The Maybe Tonight Covered in Local Fauna

Storm Blown Junk in the Cockpit

Did some preliminary cleanup on the boat before we headed back home. On the way back to our home we took a detour through our old neighborhood in Oakdale and Sayville and were amazed at how much more damage seemed to have occurred in this area. Sayville was reported to have had the highest recorded wind gust at just over 90 mph and looking around it was hard to debate that fact.

In Sayville village we turned down a few of the more scenic streets that all lead to the Great South Bay and found many of them flooded with deep water from the bay’s surge. I found a dry street and followed to the bay to catch some quick video. The following video was taken several hours after Hurricane Irene had made landfall but it was still apparent just how bad the storm had the bay torn up. On another street we saw one of the LARGE trees in this area had been toppled and cut a home almost in half. Terrible scene!!!

We arrived back home Sunday afternoon only to find the power had now gone out. I guess it was only fair after seeing the damage suffered by so many other Long Island residents. While it was still blowing pretty well we started the cleanup process which would continue for Monday as well.

By lunchtime on Monday we had the yard in decent shape and a call to the marina advised me that the boat was BACK in the water. My wife had some errands to do so I put off the rest of the yard work to take a trip to the boat for a good cleanup of all the debris. Once that was completed I could not resist the urge to take a short cruise to my favorite fishing area, Fire Island Inlet, for a peek at the effect of the storm.

Back in the Water Following Hurricane Irene

A decent breeze was blowing from the southwest, leading to some infamous Great South Bay chop. Heading through the West Channel I found huge raft of eel-grass bundled up with a LOT of garbage. Garbage that was obviously from LAND. Bottles and plastic bags made up the bulk of it but there was plenty of  other stuff that apparently had washed out of  the yards and shorelines of the bay. I was happy to find all of the buoys in this stretch exactly where they should be.

My arrival at the Fire Island Inlet had my mouth opened as first thing I noticed were the red 8 and 10 buoys from the inlet way back up inside, well off station. Cruising past the Sore Thumb I was surprised to see just how well what is left of it had weathered the storm. Just west of the rocks on the Thumb I noticed a large cut in the beach a couple of feet deep. The beach appeared to have been breached by the over-wash running up behind the dunes and then feeding back to the ocean through a low spot in the beach.

I continued outside the inlet to the point where the red 6 buoy would normally be but it was NOT there. It had been dragged a 1/4 mile or so to the west ending up just off the Town of Bablyon Overlook beach. I also noticed the red 4 buoy was dragged north of it’s chart location and ending up almost where the 6 buoy should have been. I could not get close enough to the West Bar due to the large breakers still rolling across the inlet but it was very easy to see another two buoys up on the shoal with wave breaking over them. What a navigational mess for the Coast Guard.

I headed back to the marina an EXTREMELY happy boater. It was the day after the nastiest storm to hit Long Island in 26 years, the sun was out and I was on the water with the knowledge that my family all weathered the storm safely and our home was safe and sound.

In closing I would like to say that I read a lot on the online forums, Facebook and Twitter regarding people stating that this storm was an over-hyped, overblown media fiasco. It’s almost like they are disappointed we did not get hit with a storm in the class of Katrina. These folks should keep in mind the families who were not so lucky with THIS storm. Last I heard there were 11 deaths associated to Irene along the coast. Many homes were completely damaged to the point of being uninhabitable. I find it VERY hard to believe that those families who lost a loved one or a home are feeling that this storm was a OVERBLOWN fiasco. To them this storm was the MOST devasting storm ever!!!!!! Please REMEMBER THAT!!!!!

Tight Lines.........
Capt Paul Mandella
captpaul@maybetonightcharters.com
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