Swirly Sandy Update

Busily burying treasure

Saturday with no errands to run- what better time to head to the beach? It's only a few blocks away, so I feel like we should take advantage whenever possible. Problem is, Superstorm Sandy left a mess and all the beaches on our southern shore are closed for repairs. They CLAIM they'll reopen by Memorial Day, but the entire shoreline is parks and Sandy scraped them all clean.

We stopped by Wolf's Pond, where our extended family usually gets together after church for a Memorial Day picnic just to see progress. There was a parks employee blocking the entrance in his pickup with the engine running. He said they have to completely redo the landscaping for the whole park and didn't sound convinced of his own statement that the park would be ready for the holiday weekend. 

One of the other disappointed visitors clued me in to another possibility. Apparently, Great Kills, part of Gateway National Park, is open. So that's where we are today. They appear to have plenty of boats back in their marina - this is the origin of the boats that sailed into the pirate ship playground. You can see where the waves washed the sand right up over the access road. Not much for picnic facilities, but a couple of good play structures near the beach. I'm sure that if it was warmer than 65 degrees today, there would be even more crowded conditions here.

As it is, we've been here all morning and no other kids have been here. There's fishermen lining the beach and some silver-haired sunbathers reclining on the pavement. There's also plenty of walkers, bicyclists, and runners passing by regularly.  Not many trees or even tall shrubs out here on the peninsula, so I imagine it's best to come here before it's really hot. Maybe I can get a little tan on my ankles to help mask my purple network of varicose veins. 

Wave marks months after the storm?

You can still see the effects of the storm here. The little playground has wave marks in the sand around it, showing that there hasn't been much traffic here since the storm (or else the storm removed a dune that used to protect it from the tide). The little bits of play surface that peak out of the drifts of sand are places bulging with sand beneath them. One of the metal ladders has snapped off and ends in a rusty jagged stump halfway down the ladder. There are portable toilets to replace the more permanent bathrooms. So they're open here, but I think they're still doing repairs to prepare for the summer season. It's enough for us for now, though.

Elsewhere, I'm pretty sure the parks are in worse condition. The big touristy beach still has debris sorting in the parking lot. Bulldozers are moving dunes back into place. I'm pretty sure there used to be more structures, like life guard stands and things out there. And if their playgrounds are anything like the ones we've seen, I'm not even sure how you undune sand beneath a play surface. The businesses along the beach are slowly taking down their plywood as they get back in order. Contractors line the streets repairing everything from roofs, to siding, to interiors. Our neighbor across the street finally got his roof redone this week- he has had tarp covering his storm damage all this time. As far as I can tell, everyone has to completely replace their roofs because there's no way a contractor will waste their time on smaller jobs at this point. 

Ladder snapped off at the bottom

It's strange because so much seems to be business as usual, but if you look a little more closely, there are always reminders that we're still recovering from the storm - and will be for some time.