Dan's Papers - September 12, 2008

Since about half the population on eastern Long Island is under the age of 30, it might be useful to explain what all the fuss is about hurricanes. We haven't had a big one hit in 23 years, so about half the population has never experienced one that they remember very well.

The truth is that prior to Hurricane Gloria in 1985 (our last major one) we had hurricanes of one sort or another hit here or quite near here about every five years. Since then, we've had three small hurricanes, all in the '90s. None since. And though I've made fun of our lack of hurricanes in the past - can't get us yah yah yah-yah yah - it's really a serious matter.

Thus I can give you a brief survey of the largest hurricanes to hit here in the 20th century, and I will now do so. I have none to tell you about in the 21st century. But you don't need a group of scientists in white lab coats to tell you we're going to have one, one of these days.

The worst disaster to ever befall Long Island was the hurricane of 1938. It's considered one of the greatest American disasters of all time. Several hundred people died here on eastern Long Island, downtown Westhampton Beach was flooded, the Montauk fishing village was destroyed (they rebuilt it four miles away in a more sheltered location) and thousands of homes were washed away. It hit with tremendous force on the barrier beach of Westhampton. And the reason it did was not because of its winds - they were clocked at only 112 miles an hour just outside the eye - but because unlike any other hurricane ever recorded, it hit here passing through at 60 miles an hour, which was about four times faster than any had come through before or since. It took only seven hours for it to get from North Carolina to here and so took everybody completely by surprise. (And weather forecasting was in its infancy. They actually lost track of where it was for a time.) It came and went suddenly. And since it swirled counter-clockwise as all Atlantic hurricanes do, its eastern arm roared through at 112 miles an hour, plus the 60 mile an hour forward speed. In other words, from Westhampton to Montauk, it was going close to 200 miles an hour. It hit at high tide. The storm surge was tremendous, some say 20 feet. There is no record of how long the place was without power. But anecdotal evidence suggests that it was more than a month before utilities were restored, and in some cases it was a year or even never.

I moved here in 1956, when I was 16. My dad bought the drugstore in Montauk, so Mom and we kids followed.

There was Hurricane Carol in 1954. The eye went over Westhampton Beach on August 31. Wind speeds clocked at 100 miles an hour. There was a storm surge of eight to 12 feet. For me, the major evidence of this hurricane in 1956 was a modern Surfside Drive oceanfront home high on a cliff that had its airplane-wing roof completely blown off. There was no crime tape around it. I remember, in 1956, on a sunny day, walking through and seeing all the walls still standing. It was like a dollhouse with the roof off. You could see pictures on the walls and broken furniture. This was two years later.

On September 12, 1960, Hurricane Donna hit the East End at 104 miles an hour. I was in college away from home. I had a wooden sailboat tied to a post in Lake Montauk. My mom sent me a photo showing the remains of it sitting on the Star Island beach with a telephone pole across it. End of sailboat.

Two huge storms hit between 1970 and 1990 causing power to go out on average for five days for the first and, scandalously 12 days for the second. The power company was caught completely unprepared with both. You'd see utility trucks from Scranton, Pennsylvania and Buffalo, New York here helping out.

The first was Hurricane Belle in 1976. It hit on August 9 around Bay Shore, but was losing steam when it hit. Top winds were just 80 miles an hour. Nevertheless, more than half a million people were without power on Long Island. In East Hampton, I rode out the storm with my girlfriend and 10 other people inside a new home owned and built by painter Abraham Rattner (no relation) on Egypt Lane. Windows were boarded up. We were in there six days without power, water or anything. The town was a mess of fallen trees. It was awful.

The one in 1985 was Hurricane Gloria, which blasted across Fire Island near Nassau County on September 27. Top wind speed was 86 miles an hour when it got here. But three-quarters of a million people on Long Island were without power for an average of 12 days. I was living with my wife and four kids in a big house on a hill overlooking Three Mile Harbor for that one. Many boats were tied to their slips with basketweaves of ropes that held them up and out of the water. We boarded up the western face of the house. This hurricane was not a big blow, though there were trees down and houses damaged, and at high tide the harbor was over the sidewalk by a foot or two. But no power came back on for two weeks. Awful.

And that's been it. Hurricane Bob blew in on August 19, 1991, with the eye passing off the coast of Montauk and with winds of 101 miles an hour. And though again there was no power for four days for 400,000 people on Long Island, it didn't seem to do as much damage as Gloria.

We had remnants of Hurricane Floyd come over Nassau County at 45 miles an hour in 1999, but that wouldn't count here. Up island the power was out for half a million people for four days, though.

Since then, there have been lots of hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico, and a few in South Carolina. Florida has been slapped silly by hurricanes, sometimes by the same one passing over the state and then back again. Hurricane Andrew devastated Homestead, Florida. Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans. But there was no real problem here.

This weekend, we got the remnants of Hanna. Winds of about 40 miles an hour blew through. There were torrential rains. And since it was, at most, just a tropical storm by the time it got here, just consider it a warning.

Dr. Stephen Leatherman, who fancies himself "Dr. Beach" and knows a great deal about these things, has listed Long Island, whose length sits directly in the path of storms charging up the Atlantic from the south, just as a bat waits for a baseball, is ranked #8 in the country as the place most likely to be hit by a hurricane.

For several years now, Councilwoman Nancy Graboski in Southampton has produced a guidebook of what to do when a hurricane comes, and though some have made fun of it - duck, get food, flashlights, batteries and water and candles, leave the area, etc. - there are some very valuable things in it you might never have thought of.

Besides the food and water, prepare a "Go Bag" ahead of time. Put in it a crank radio, changes of clothing, protective gloves, extra cell phone batteries, toys for the kids, money, written instructions on how to turn OFF electricity, gas and water (for emergency crews if needed), and, in plastic, valuable family documents such as wills, marriage certificates, certificates of occupancy, insurance policies (!!), passports and recent tax returns.

Appoint a designated family member outside the area - maybe in New York City or Pennsylvania - to act as a central contact point for all family members in this area. Give that person cell phone numbers and e-mail addresses of everybody. You all have to stay in touch. And make sure everybody here knows how to reach the designated family member.

Here are some important emergency numbers: LIPA 800-490-0025, Hurricane Center 631-924-0517, Pet Safe 516-676-0808, Red Cross 631-924-6700. Local TV news sources: News 12, Plum TV, LTV and WVVH. Radio: WLNG FM, and WINS and WCBS AM. The full brochure can be found at www.liprepares.org.