Before the Sag Harbor Village Board meeting Tuesday night, the streets were just wet with rain and the winds were mellow. By the time it ended two hours later, the rain and wind were both steady. At 2 a.m., the rain was falling with such speed and force, aided by a driving wind, that it would have been difficult to breathe, had you been unlucky enough to be outside.
Wind gusts, predicted to reach over 70 miles per hour on the East End, seemed less. By 3 a.m. the rain was easing, with the heaviest part of the storm blowing east, and a dripping darkness prevailed. At sunrise, perhaps the biggest surprise was the lack of tree damage.
Only a few scattered utility crews were found between Sag Harbor and Montauk. In a storm update sent out around noon Wednesday, East Hampton Town said that there were several power outages in Amagansett and that PSEG Long Island crews were expected to have service restored by the afternoon.
While the wind may not have been as much of a problem here as anticipated, flooding caused by rain, a storm surge, and high tide was an issue. Several roads around town were partially closed Wednesday due to flooding from storm surge and rain, among them South Emerson Street at Essex Street and Otis Road at Ditch Plain Road, both in Montauk, Beach Lane in Wainscott, Gerard Drive, Underwood Drive, and Maidstone Park Road in Springs, and Napeague Meadow Road from Montauk Highway to Lazy Point.
Police were cautioning people to stay off beaches as a high storm surge and heavy surf are continuing to make some areas extremely hazardous, according to East Hampton Town's storm update.
Montauk took the brunt of the damage, with heavy flooding downtown near Bounce Beach at South Emerson Street and at Ditch Plain, where the high tide had all but demolished the oceanfront deck at one house on the beach. Roads were closed off with police tape. A front yard was completely submerged.
Dai Dayton, president of the Friends of the Long Pond Greenbelt, said she measured 2.4 inches of rain in her gauge between Sag Harbor and Bridgehampton, which she uses to report to the National Weather Service. She took photos of the recently completed Round Pond shoreline restoration project, disappointed that it had been completely washed out in the heavy rain.
"They planted so late, a lot of those plants don't have root structure yet and couldn't take the amount of rain that fell," she said.
Drew Smith, the head lifeguard for East Hampton Village, said the main takeaway from the storm was "a massive amount of beach erosion." A beach fence, installed in front of the Main Beach Pavilion, was destroyed, but not before protecting the building from any significant damage from floating debris, much of which was still present during the morning. "People ask why we have the beach fence up, and that's why. It helps minimize damage to the structure of Main Beach Pavilion," he said.
A tree came down overnight in front of 120 Main Street in the village. Dave Collins, the village's superintendent of public works, said the state had already taken care of it. "It's their tree, and road. We're just out doing some cleanup this morning, but nothing major. I'm not complaining." He said there was sand to clean up at Main Beach, but no reports of major flooding.
The intersection at Stephen Hand's Path and Route 114 was dry. The catch basin on the northwest side of the road was full. In years past, that intersection would have been underwater, so it serves as an example of an engineering project done right.
At Indian Wells Beach in Amagansett, the parking lot, like that at Main Beach, was covered in a layer of sand that was six inches deep in places. A town police officer was out assessing damage and expressed gratitude that it had been mainly a rain storm, though she said officials were concerned about the high tide on the bay side.
Indeed, at the Lake Montauk Inlet, waves hit a bulkhead to the west, in front of a condominium complex, and shot spray 50 feet into the air. A surfable wave peeled off the eastern jetty. Scores of bay ducks had taken refuge in the inlet, and hundreds of gulls spread across Gin Beach on the east side of the inlet.
At Ditch Plain, a real estate broker looked up at the large house that was built adjacent to the parking lot and is on the market for $25 million. Huge debris littered the parking lot. A section of tree trunk, which must have weighed tons, partially blocked access to the beach. Yards away, the ocean was roiling and white.
Clare Kelly, a Montauk resident since the 1970s, stood on a broken walkway overlooking the ocean downtown at South Edgemere Street. Exposed sandbags as far as the eye could see were being pounded by heavy surf, the sound thunderous. Mobilization for a long-awaited major beach renourishment project begins this week.
"For Montauk to go from the pristine place we were to dirtbag beach, it's sad," Ms. Kelly said.
