Dan's Papers - June 15, 2007 - Saving Montauk: Flood Plan Is Overdue

"What should have been done," "Why wasn't it done" and "What if..." are always the words spoken after a disaster. It is amazing how bright everybody is afterwards. For example, now everyone asks, "Why weren't the levees in New Orleans fortified?" after looking at billions upon billions of dollars of damage. The millions of dollars it would have cost to make New Orleans better prepared for hurricane Katrina now seem criminal for not being spent well in advance. With these thoughts as a backdrop, the director of the Town of East Hampton Natural Resources, Larry Penny, was asked what would need to be done for the Village of Montauk to prevent damage of a hurricane like Katrina. His responses were very sobering and insightful.

Because the village is so close to the ocean with a natural wall of sand dunes that can handle about a seven to nine feet rise above normal high tide, the problem lies in the fact that a Category 3 hurricane is projected to make the tide thirteen feet higher than normal. Mr. Penny said Katrina was a Category 4 when it passed through New Orleans. Earlier this summer some schoolteachers from Biloxi, Mississippi solemnly told me what it is was like as 32 foot higher than normal water level destroyed their homes, town and lives. So the question was asked to Mr. Penny -- what can and should be done, and what if nothing is done? Here are his answers.

The Ditch Plains sand dunes, fortified this last spring with the small lake formed with a weir to prevent flooding "worked well," according to Mr. Penny. He said he realized there was not enough sand around Montauk to fortify, raise and build the sand dune wall necessary to protect the village without pumping sand from the ocean to the shore. Why? Because what is needed to protect the town is a 30 ft. high wall of sand and dunes that should stretch from east of South Essex Street all the way west to just past the IGA along the shore. And there just is not enough sand by other means to achieve this goal. Why the wall?

Because a town study a while back basically estimated the damage to the Village of Montauk's infrastructure, roads, sewers, electrical lines and buildings to be a minimum of $500 million. This number does not include personal effects in homes, stores and things like cars. Then Mr. Penny went beyond that, to discuss how Fort Pond would in effect become a dead lake due to the salt-water influx. Plant life around the lake would be destroyed. The schoolteachers from Biloxi talked about how their once beautiful town became a "moonscape" due to the salting of the soil caused by Katrina and the high tide.

Mr. Penny said that a project of this magnitude would take a minimum of five years and to do it totally right maybe even ten years. It's cost? "Start up -- at least one million. Completions -- perhaps 10 million," he explained.

Long Beach had a proposal that was priced at over $150 million to do similar work over a much longer stretch of beach and it was voted down because of the cost. One has to wonder -- pre-Katrina -- what the vote tally would have been in New Orleans versus a vote after the destruction. Mr. Penny, a realist, doesn't see a ground swell of support to act on these ideas in the village of Montauk. He also basically said that this plan would be just for the village of Montauk, meaning the rest of East Hampton has issues also.

But what if the town gave the okay and the money was put in place? What would happen? First large pumps offshore would suck up sand from the ocean floor and the sand would be transported to the beach by huge hoses. Other materials, like rocks and hard earth, would be used to fortify the core of a 30 ft. mountain range of dunes that would rise along the seashore as the protecting barrier. Mr. Penny said that if we used the Army Corp of Engineers they would maintain the dune at no further cost.

It is hopeful that the day never comes that Mr. Penny is on CNN explaining what if, what could have done should have been done but wasn't because of the political and financial priorities. Hopefully he won't have to go on explaining realities before a Category 3 storm comes ashore and changes everything. The beaches will be there like they have for thousands of years, but the wonderful beautiful magnificent homes? Well, enjoy them while we have them. The saying is a gambler never plans on crapping out.