East End erosion, a hallmark of a harsh winter, takes its toll

Winter storms have chewed away at East End beaches this season, collapsing pavement in Southold and reshaping dunes in Montauk.

In Southold, black asphalt recently collapsed from a parking lot onto the town’s Lt. George R. Sullivan Beach. The town’s most-used beach is so eroded that there is now a roughly 5-foot drop between the sand and the parking lot — a gap that didn’t exist before. 

Southold Town Supervisor Al Krupski said the town had placed sand along the battered Sound-front beach last winter to rebuild it for the summer season. The town Department of Public Works then spread the sand just before Memorial Day, but a nor’easter quickly wiped it out.

“It lasted for one day,” Krupski said. “And it was all gone.”

The rapid loss and crumbling asphalt underscore the effects of gradual sea-level rise and the limits of simply placing sand on the beach as an erosion solution, Krupski said.

Coastal erosion occurs as flooding, rising sea levels and strong waves from major storms remove sand from beaches, increasing flood risks for nearby manmade structures.

The town is working with the Long Island Sound Partnership to apply for grant funding for a larger-scale restoration project aimed at preserving public beach access, Krupski said.

Southold also hopes to raise Route 48, a major road that runs adjacent to the beach. Krupski said he recently discussed potential funding and design with Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine and Rep. Nick LaLota.

For now, the focus is on safety and limited access at the beach this coming season, Krupski said.

East Hampton Councilman David Lys said winter storms have carved away oceanfront beaches there, though recently built coastal defenses have so far protected homes, hotels and other structures.

On Montauk’s ocean side, a recently installed fortified dune and beach infill project “held up for the most part,” Lys said, though repeated pounding caused sections of the engineered dune face to slump where the beach profile was stripped down to hardpan.

The $5 million restoration project placed about 20,000 cubic yards of sand at Ditch Plains Beach after winter storms in 2023 and 2024 significantly damaged it, increasing flood hazards in Montauk.

“It protected the critical infrastructure that is landward of the dune,” Lys said.

East Hampton will rely on stockpiled sand to infill eroded areas and restore recreational beach widths closer to April and May, aiming to have the shoreline ready for Memorial Day, Lys said.

Longer term, the town is part of a 30-year, roughly $28 million partnership with the state and federal governments to restore the shoreline under the Fire Island to Montauk Point program. A recent dredging project at Lake Montauk Inlet placed about 95,000 cubic yards of sand west of the jetties to act as “feeder” beach, Lys said.

He said the town was fortunate to have milder winters in recent years that have helped it implement coastal defense dunes.

Aram Terchunian, a coastal geologist in Westhampton Beach whose firm First Coastal tracks erosion on the East End, said north and northwest winds during last week’s blizzard helped blunt damage on south-facing ocean beaches.

“What we did see was more damage on the north-facing shorelines, like in the Peconic bays,” he said. “But even those areas were mostly spared because the shoreline was frozen.”

Beaches west of the Shinnecock Inlet “got worse from the storm, but fortunately, there was no overwashing or breaching there,” Terchunian said.

The beach damage is the latest impact of one of the harshest winters in the past decade. Erosion helped cause the collapse of the iconic "stilt house" at Lazy Point, and freezing temperatures have uprooted and damaged docks and marinas.