Nor’easter leaves sand cliffs on Long Island beaches and Gilgo State Park shut

The weekend nor’easter carved massive sand cliffs into the beach at Gilgo State Park in Suffolk County, and the park is now closed. Beaches from Montauk west to Long Beach also lost significant amounts of sand, making erosion one of the biggest worries on Long Island after the storm.

Stay out of the water, officials warn. With no lifeguards on duty, they say the ocean is extremely dangerous right now and nobody should go in.

Long Island beach erosion after the nor’easter

George Gorman, the state Department of Parks’ regional director, said this storm did not reach the scale of Superstorm Sandy, yet its effects were felt across the entire island. Hither Hills State Park took significant erosion, he said, and anyone who walks beyond the parking field now faces “a 6-to-8-foot drop right down into the sand.”

Rich Corbett, who once served as Nassau County’s emergency management commissioner, pointed to the jetties. Their design, he said, shapes the way moving water pulls sand up onto the shore.

In Long Beach, the city manager said the bay side fared worse than the ocean side. Cars could not get through on some flooded roads, so South Shore residents paddled the streets in kayaks and on paddle boards.

Long Island state park closures and power outages

No state park will open again until officials consider it safe. Gilgo was already slated for new sand: a plan by the Army Corps of Engineers to add sand there was in place before the nor’easter hit.

Utility crews reconnected more than 100,000 customers who lost power in the storm. As of Monday morning, over 7,000 customers were still in the dark while restoration work went on.