Hurricane Erin still roiling Long Island waters; Suffolk ocean beaches remain closed to swimming through Saturday morning

Hurricane Erin turned away from the East Coast Friday morning but the large, powerful storm continued to churn up Long Island's ocean waters, forcing officials to keep swimmers from entering the ocean through Saturday morning.

The Suffolk County Department of Health Services said Atlantic beaches in Suffolk County would remain closed to swimmers through Saturday morning due to hazardous rip currents from the storm that are expected to remain over the weekend. Earlier in the day, the department had said the closures would last until Saturday night.

“Saturday and Sunday both have a high rip current risk,” James Tomasini, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Upton, said in a phone interview. Forecasters said coastal flooding and high surf are also a concern both days even as the storm pulls away.

But conditions are then expected to “gradually improve,” he said. “The swell that was affecting us from Erin will gradually be lowering as we get into next week,” Tomasini said.

Lifeguards will “analyze surf conditions” in the morning at state parks beaches to determine if it’s safe to authorize swimming, said George Gorman, regional director of state parks on Long Island. During Friday afternoon, waves at Robert Moses State Park still reached an estimated eight to 10 feet, he said.

At Fire Island's Watch Hill and Sailors Haven, lifeguards were actively keeping bathers out of the water, said Scott McCormick, deputy superintendent of Fire Island National Seashore. He said it's "too early to tell" if rip current conditions will subside this week, adding, “Once it’s safe to do so, we’ll return to swimming.”

Nassau County beaches along the Atlantic Ocean, including Tobay Beach, Long Beach, Point Lookout Beach and Lido Beach were closed to swimming Thursday and Friday, but some officials said they would assess conditions Saturday morning to determine if bathers could re-enter the water.

Erin leaves erosion, flooding

The storm, which chugged along hundreds of miles off the coast of Canada, weakening to a Category 1 hurricane Friday, also left Long Island beaches with significant erosion, officials said, as well as some minor street flooding.

East Hampton Councilman David Lys said the town dodged the "head-on bullet" of the storm. The town's supervisor and emergency management team met at 7:30 a.m. Friday to evaluate beach conditions and found "many of our beaches have lost a lot of profile of sand, but at the same time held up."

At Ditch Plains Beach in Montauk, water reached sand barriers but didn't breach them, and the recent Army Corps of Engineers project designed to protect downtown Montauk "did its job — it dissipated wave energy," Lys said, adding that the effort protected "some of the critical infrastructure in the hotels."

Lys said he's hopeful "southwest swells over the next couple weeks and months will help heal the beaches naturally" after Erin caused widespread erosion.

Oyster Bay Supervisor Joseph Saladino said Tobay Beach suffered "significant erosion" from the storm. Town workers will "reorganize the sand to make sure that we have enough beach for beachgoers on Labor Day weekend,"

Streets in Mastic Beach near the Great South Bay were flooded Friday morning.

Joseph Alesi, 61, who lives at the intersection of Riviera Drive and Hickory Road, said he experienced flooding on his street from both roads Thursday night into Friday morning. He said water came up to his side-door steps and through his garage Thursday night. He and his wife parked their cars on a helpful neighbor’s property on higher ground. “God forbid that storm came in any closer, we'd be done,” he said.

Gorman said "large pools" of water remained at Jones Beach after tides receded. Workers used bulldozers to create trenches "so that the pools of water" drained into the ocean, Gorman said.

Despite the erosion at Robert Moses, Gilgo, and Montauk state parks, "There is still sand on the beaches, so we will be able to operate as normal," Gorman said.

Early Friday, spectators began trickling back to Smith Point County Park in Shirley, as huge waves continued to hit close to the shore. Sand had completely engulfed the park’s lower steps leading to the beach near Tiki Joe’s restaurant around 7 a.m., as waves flooded higher onto the middle level.
Kevin Sheridan, 60, of Selden, arrived around 7 a.m. to take photos of and see how bad the waves were. “I’m shocked by how much the beach has eroded,” he said. “But that’s Mother Nature.”

Wind gusts of 28-35 mph were also expected along the South Shore throughout Friday, creating dangerous conditions for boaters as well as anyone entering the surf. A small craft advisory remains in effect through to Saturday, the weather service said.

Despite coastal impacts, weather conditions will be otherwise dry through Saturday. The weather service is monitoring a system approaching from the Great Lakes that could bring some showers and possibly thunderstorms Sunday into the beginning of the work week.

The National Hurricane Center was tracking a disturbance a couple hundred miles northeast of the northern Leeward Islands that has a high track of development, but Matthew Tauber, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Upton, said that system is likely to stay east of Erin’s path.