Wind And Tides' Toll Rises

Bayfront Tides Breach Bulkheads

Another in a string of almost weekly northeasters struck the East End Monday night and early Tuesday, but, despite abnormally high tides and gusts pushing 60 miles an hour, for the most part the area was spared from major problems.

While the ocean shoreline took the beating in the costly Feb. 5 northeaster, this time the bay side got the worst. Scattered problems were reported from Soundview Avenue in Montauk around to Gerard Drive in Springs, for example.

In Southampton, where erosion has jeopardized oceanfront houses, two especially vulnerable areas, Dune Road in Bridgehampton and Potato Road in Sagaponack, appeared stable. Southampton Town Supervisor Vincent Cannuscio said the town had received no reports of major erosion or flooding.

Gale Force

"It blew up to 60 miles per hour" late Monday and early Tuesday, said Richard Hendrickson of Bridgehampton, an observer for the National Weather Service. He recorded gusts of up to 50 miles per hour on Tuesday morning and 2.5 inches of rain. The Montauk Coast Guard Station reported sustained winds of 40 miles per hour.

The most significant storm-related damage was reported on Soundview Drive. Large wind-driven waves from Block Island Sound pummeled a bulkhead. By yesterday morning, the waves broke through, opening a 20-foot-wide breach and putting one house behind it in jeopardy.

"Once the bulkhead failed, everything behind it just came tumbling out," said James T. Greenbaum, a Soundview Drive resident.

Want More Sand

Mr. Greenbaum, the son of former Town Supervisor Ron Greenbaum, said his family's house shares the bulkhead, which was built jointly by seven Soundview Drive residents. He said he and the Montauk-based Save Our Beach Association had long been urging the town and Army Corps of Engineers to dredge Montauk Harbor and to deposit the dredged sand on the beaches east and west of the channel.

He also noted that a town-owned road drainage pipe runs through the bulkhead, approximately where the damage occurred. He suggested that failure to maintain the pipe may have contributed to the damage.

"Tides were the highest I've seen this winter," said Richard McGowin, who is the East Hampton Town emergency preparedness coordinator. Had the storm itself been more severe, "then, we would have had a problem," he said.

Traffic Signal Down

Water topped the bulkhead at the town marina on Three Mile Harbor Road during high tide, and, in Sag Harbor, water made it up to the edge of Long Wharf and the village docks. East Hampton Town police reported flooding on Gerard Drive, Napeague Meadow Road, and Soak Hides Road. Gerard Drive and Soak Hides Road were closed to traffic briefly yesterday.

Winds yesterday morning were strong enough to debilitate the traffic light at the intersection of Route 114 and Stephen Hand's Path. East Hampton Town police were forced to direct traffic, while State Department of Transportation workers restored the light.

Only scattered power outages were reported over the two-day storm by the Long Island Lighting Company - 75 of them in Montauk, and eight in the rest of East Hampton. Islandwide, LILCO reported 10,200 storm-related outages.

No Problem

"Our system has held up pretty well in these storms," said Stefanie Gossin, a LILCO spokeswoman. She credited the company's tree-trimming program, noting that damage to branches is responsible for 95 percent of outages during storms.

Branches were not a problem for the Town Highway Department. "From a Highway Department point of view, we had absolutely nothing," said Town Highway Superintendent Chris Russo. "The tide was very high and we had flooding on some of the roads that normally flood, and some debris on some of the roads, but that's about it."

El Nino

Mr. Hendrickson placed some of the blame for the recent string of storms on El Ni¤o, the weather pattern that moves in from the Pacific Ocean and has been blamed for stormy weather from California to Florida.

"It comes over the Pacific Coast, makes it way across the Southern U.S. and Northern Mexico, and, when it hits the Gulf and meets that warm air, it drops a bunch of rain," Mr. Hendrickson said.

As the storms move up the coast, they often have "backed up on themselves" as winds shift from easterly to northwesterly, causing continual stormy conditions, he said.

He predicted the East End would be in for a blustery and soggy spring.