Aftermath of Hurricane Sandy on Block Island
October 31, 2012 8 Comments
We are all OK and no-one on BI was hurt – but the sea strength has devastated roads and dunes and low-lying buildings.
Sandy was much worse even than predicted – apparently the water was in a standing wave ABOVE the breakwater last night. The boats may not be able to get in to the harbor – there may be a new sand bar at the entrance – some of the breakwater stone slabs look as if they are inside the harbor – all that sort of stuff is being checked out at the moment – no news yet. The mainland had it worse. Here, everyone was out this utterly beautiful quiet sunny morning taking pictures of devastation. Click for bigger pictures.
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- Setting out from Bridgegate Square along the Corn Neck Road
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- Discovering the destruction of Corn Neck road
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- And where have the dunes gone?
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- What has happened to the beaches?
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- The sea meets rocks
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- Debris carried across what used to be road
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- The Beachhead restaurant was well prepared
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- But they can’t have expected this much stuff
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- No road, rocks on the beach
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- Even further along, the road is undermined
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- The water scooped out all the foundations
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- The Trustram Dodge marker stone has moved!
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- The dogs don’t care, mud, sand, dirt, all OK
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- Back to town, half a road, and no dunes
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- Even where the road was higher, it has cracked
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- Back in town, Water Street – looking calm and beautiful
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- Look closer – between Water Street and the small beach INSIDE the harbor
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- Sand and debris everywhere underfoot
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- Old Harbor new dock by Ballard’s beach restaurant
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- This was the new dock – walked on it on Sunday
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- Free Spirit no more
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- The breakwater by Ballard’s – sea still surging over it
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- Ballard’s beach restaurant band-stand
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- Plywood protection has gone
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- Inside Ballard’s beach restaurant
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- The sea is still powerful
I feel like a gawker after an accident – I am a gawker and so are we all, but we want to know what has happened to our place. Corn Neck Road – out along the beaches – in the pictures – fortunately the Beach Avenue bridge held, so people who live further out can reach there and come in to town via Beach and Ocean Avenues. I have not gone up Spring Street but am told that as it turns below the Spring House Hotel and runs above the shore, the water has undermined the road and it is not passable. I have to go to the family home – further along Spring Street – the long way, up High Street past the school to the South of the island, back past SE lighthouse and then down the hill. Ballard’s beach restaurant is ruined and the Beachhead has an awful lot of clearing up to do.
The mainland fared worse still. My sympathies and good wishes to everyone in the aftermath of this amazing storm.
And indeed it makes one think of everyone everywhere who has suffered from the elements. Why oh why do we not use armies and human ingenuity for things like this, rather than for devastating each other?
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