The bigger picture surrounding the Christmas Blizzard that hit December 26th 2010 has started to emerge. Mitchell Freedman and Bill Bleyer’s article in Newsday, “Erosion Worries Heighten on the East End” , January 1st 2011, drew some strong responses, seemingly dividing the east from the west, and sending homeowners scurrying for government assistance, only to be pushed back by a force stronger than winds that tore apart the east end over the holidays. Emotions are running high.
Courtesy of Newsday: Suffolk officials are pushing to get the state Office of Emergency Management and Federal Emergency Management Agency to come to the county this week to see whether erosion from the storm would qualify for federal disaster assistance. The county is hoping to show there was the required minimum of $4 million in damage in Suffolk and $25 million statewide to qualify for FEMA reimbursement.
Given the state of Soundview Avenue in Southold, the threat to utility supplies on County Rd 48, and the destruction of the Town Beach, it’s not hard to imagine Southold meeting the County’s $4 million burden singlehandedly from merely this one small stretch of shoreline from west of Town Beach to east of Hashamomuck Cove, where there’s now a mere 12ft left to breach before the water takes the utility supplies for possibly all that lies east of it. This would include Eastern Long island Hospital (ELIH) presumably?
Add to that Riverhead’s Soundfront coastline, including Baiting Hollow, as reported by Denise Civiletti of Riverhead Local, plus the South Shore starting at Montauk and extending who knows how far west, and equally, it’s not hard to imagine the eastern portion of Suffolk County exceeding the State’s $25 million burden with ease. It’s a mess.
“ConcernedforNY” comments on the Newsday article,
Absolutely no sympathy for these people that decided to live right on the water. You are just asking for these issues to happen. Mother Nature is p/o’d and is going to continue to reek havoc until there is more peace on this earth, so if that means beach erosion, then people – put your swim trunks on or MOVE!!!
Perhaps the best answer to this is by Benja Schwartz on Andrea Aurichio’s article in the North Fork Patch, Southold Roads and Houses in Danger of Falling into the Sound, Dec 27th 2010.
No property stands alone.
We have only two choices.
Either, we continue to build on and armor the shoreline, or we retreat to a safe distance.
The decision must be unanimous!
The choice is clear for Lynn Laskos, Chair of Hashamomuck Cove Group in Southold, a member of this organization. Her New Year started by delivering a letter first thing Monday morning to various government officials, demanding answers. It’s less than 3 months since Hashamomuck Cove group were promised assistance in the face of adversity, in a very public Press Conference by Legislator Ed Romaine in September .
On the first work day of 2011, Gil Anderson, Commissioner- Suffolk County Department of Public Works, Legislator Ed Romaine, Southold Supervisor Scott Russell and Senator Schumer, each received another plea for help for this North Shore coastline community. The response was prompt and clear from Sup. Scott Russell,
The Town of Southold is already evaluating cost and losses to meet the needs of this FEMA assistance. This includes losses to beaches, roads, parking lots and other public infrastructure damage that was a result of the storm. We expect to have our estimates in within the times given. It is important to understand that FEMA does not offer assistance or reimbursement to private property owners. This particular application is for damage and costs associated to public infrastructure. As such, damage to private homes and properties are not included in the estimates and are not permitted to be included in the estimates.
Clearly, the priority is the public infrastructure, not private property, including (but not limited to) providing utilities, hospital access, emergency services, train links, and commerce, all of which need roads. However, if County Rd 48 gets washed out at Hashamomuck Cove, or anywhere else for that matter, there’s more than a handful of privately owned houses at stake. These houses represent buffers to the functioning of our infrastructure, the loss of which have consequences reaching well beyond the handful of houses to the whole community. Privately owned homes are frequently the only structures that hold the destructive forces of nature at bay.
Here’s a non-exhaustive list of questions that we face today. Please add to these below by replying in the comments.
- Is an exposed gas pipe line dangerous?
- If cabling is exposed/ gets battered in high winds by flotsam from damaged homes/ brought over from the CT shoreline, does the infrastructure completely break down?
- Does everyone east of the breach then have their gas/ water/ electric services shut off, and tanked in?
- If so, would that be on both sides of the road and further inland, or just the waterfront properties?
- If Riverhead breaches first, does Southold then have a problem?
- Can emergency vehicles get the the hospital if County Rd 48 washes out?
- Are there schematics of the pipelines in the public domain?
- Would they be able to run feeds from Rte 25?
- How long would that take?
The next Town Board meeting, where your voice may be heard on these and other issues is Tuesday January 4th 2011. Check the Town website for details. John Betsch, Southold VOICE Chair will be there. Stand beside him, and let your voice be heard. If you can’t be there, call him on the Southold VOICE number, 631 655-7255 to express your opinions. This problem is too big for any one person to solve alone. We need everyone to stand united and to find one VOICE to solve this problem. Without that, there’s no way out.
Joanna
______________________________________________________
*Background information on Hashamomuck Cover Group’s fight to save their homes and their beach can be found by searching the Hashamomuck Cove category on this website.
No Comments