HURRICNE SANDY AND THE WETLAND PRESERVE

HURRICNE SANDY AND THE WETLAND PRESERVE


Hurricane Sandy will go down as now of the most expensive natural disasters of all time. Damage estimates now are multi-billion dollars and are sure to rise as they always do. I believe that part of this is related to long term sea level rise coupled with higher than normal sea surface temperatures – both of which are ultimately caused by climate change. We have been warned.
The infra-structure of New York, New Jersey and especially the shore front communities took the brunt of the damage in ways that it is hard to even imagine. Our understanding of flood zone, coastal flood plains and storm surges is sharper today that it was last week but at what a cost. Even someone like myself, who has looked at these cases over the many years, cannot help but be surprised by some of the specifics. It does look like we are living in a new era under a new set of rules. We have entered a greenhouse world.

How did the preserve fare in the wake of Hurricane Sandy? Our wetland preserve sits in a low lying coastal valley partially flooded by the shallow waters of Little Neck Bay. Tidal range is always high (6’-7’) and goes even higher (8.4’) on every new moon and full moon. I’ve seen storms add another 1, 2 and even 3 feet with a degree of regularity and have even seen it add 5 to 6 feet on two separate occasions. This brings the water up and over the banks of Alley Creek lifting it towards the APEC building. This is exactly what happened on the evening of Oct 29 as the storm surge of Sandy made its way down the length of Long Island Sound on the night of the full moon. Surprisingly it did not go any higher than it did. It entered the APEC parking lot and reached the Northern Blvd sidewalk but came no higher. I suspect that it has something to do with timing and maybe the narrowness of the creek itself under the LIRR bridge which will allow for only so much water to pass into the wetlands in a given time interval. In any case it came no higher than it has come before in other very large storms. We were very lucky.
Wind damages are another story. The winds gusting out of the east across the expanse of the valley hit the tree tops on the west bank with tremendous force. Everything that fell toppled to the west and trees laid themselves out like giant dominos. We lost mostly giants willows (3), some pussy willows (2), but also some locust (1+) at least one tulip and one of our most prized pin oaks. That was a real loss because it had some personal, sentimental value. It had been planted as a special honor to Frank Padavan and his family when we were first starting out. It was one of the loveliest trees that anyone could imagine and it was the first tree that everyone walked by on the way to the trail.

We sustained no other great losses to the building and grounds and have to consider ourselves extremely lucky when considering what so many other communities are going through. On Wednesday and Thursday after the storm we assessed the damage and began to clear away the downed trees from parking lot and trails. About 20 volunteers on Halloween Wednesday and 9 students and myself on All Saints Thursday cleared the nearby grounds and distant trails. Every spoke about what they had gone through two nights but the hard work helped put that all behind us.

Is it possible to find a truly positive outcome in all of this?   I think there is.

As we finished up on Thursday afternoon I asked each of the students to pick out a freshly cut willow log. “Pick out something that is green and alive and bursting with life” I told them. I had each of the students walk them to a wet spot and bury it in the wet mucky soil. As with all willows, some of these logs will sprout next year. They have plenty of life and will send down their roots and send up shoots that in a few years will become our next generation of trees. Maybe we will lose these too, to some future storm of unknown name, but even if we do, we will be blessed by their vitality, their summer shade and their beauty for many years to come. I think that is what I will remember about Hurricane Sandy many years from now.