Keeper of Montauk Point Lighthouse clocks winds at 88 mph

Joe Gaviola, the lighthouse keeper at the Montauk Point Lighthouse, said the winds hit 88 mph Monday morning, so powerful, "I felt my residence shaking ... I've lived up here for a while, I've lived through nor'easters, hurricanes, others snowstorms, but this was the most intense I remember in my life. It not only hit with hurricane-force winds, but the snow was heavy and wet. ... The energy of this was a force that I haven't felt before."

Gaviola said the high winds blew most of the snow from the ground around the lighthouse. Damage to the residence and the lighthouse, commissioned in 1792 by President George Washington: one broken screen.

By Nicholas Spangler

nicholas.spangler@newsday.comspanglernewsday

Nicholas Spangler is a general assignment reporter and has worked at Newsday since 2010.