By Michael Sparks
When Hurricane Sandy opened a breach in Fire Island National Seashore, some residents wanted it closed. Thanks to long-standing community relationships and smart science, it stayed open.
A punishing storm ran up the Eastern seaboard in late-October 2012, pounding coastal areas with drenching rains, gusting winds that downed trees, and floodwaters that inundated many National Park System structures. At Fire Island National Seashore in New York, Hurricane Sandy tore a gaping hole through the seashore’s eastern side, a breach that in hindsight carried much-needed ecological benefits and some important lessons on how park units can recover from major damage.
Designated a national seashore by Congress in September 1964, Fire Island is a 26-mile long chain of barrier dunes and islands across the Great South Bay from Long Island that takes many storms head-on. Breaches are common on the seashore’s barrier islands. In fact, the area Sandy opened was breached before, in the 1880s, and remained open for about 60 years before naturally repairing itself, according to the National Park Service.