Hurricane Earl in Pictures on Long Island: Surfing at Long Beach
Hurricane Earl was poised Friday to glance the eastern end of Long Island, deliver a wicked storm and move on, but not before giving the playpen of the rich and famous in the Hamptons a good scare on the eve of the last big weekend of the summer.
“We got a pass,” said Jim McLauchlin, a real estate broker and certified general appraiser in Southampton who was talking of Hurricane Earl even before it delivered its strongest punch to the eastern tip of Long Island, where 10-foot-tall hedges surround mansions worth tens of millions of dollars.
Word that Earl was diminishing in strength with a downgrade to a Category 1 storm did not stop preparations by authorities determined to protect essential services and weaken the resolve of thrill seekers.
Beaches were closed, boats were put on land, some campgrounds were shut and ferry and train service was stopped as precautionary measures. For a brief time, the U.S. Open was interrupted.
But the long train of cars that snakes its way slowly through 40 miles of the Hamptons over one main artery on every weekend from Memorial Day to Labor Day was on schedule, despite the threat of Earl.
For the youngest visitors to the always popular New York City getaway, the tall ocean waves were as eye opening as fireworks.
“They’re humongous!” gushed 8-year-old Jessica Smith in Montauk, the easternmost point of a 120-mile island, the largest off the continental United States.
[popup url=”http://assets.longislandpress.com/photos/gallery.php?gazpart=show&gazgal=400″]Click here to view more photos of Hurricane Earl’s impact on LI[/popup]
The island’s eastern end was under a tropical storm warning as Earl was expected to pass between 100 and 200 miles southeast of Montauk late Friday, depositing wind gusts as high as 55 mph, according to the National Weather Service.
Earl was powerful even far from its core. Its hurricane-force winds extended 70 miles from its center, and tropical storm-force winds of at least 39 mph radiated out 205 miles.
Pounding surf, minor to moderate beach erosion and rip currents were forecast, before the storm was expected to ease after midnight.
The effect Earl would have on holiday travel wasn’t immediately clear.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey expected nearly 3 million travelers to pass through its airports, bridges, tunnels and rail system over Labor Day weekend.
Port Authority spokesman Ron Marsico urged travelers to call airlines to make sure their flights were running on schedule.
“We would rather have our passengers safe at home rather than stuck at the airport,” he said.
The Long Island Rail Road announced it would halt service on two branches on eastern Long Island Friday. Suffolk County officials said ferry service between Fire Island and the mainland would not operate in late afternoon. Several county-run campgrounds also were closing, along with beaches on the Atlantic Ocean, said Dan Aug, a spokesman for the county executive.
Authorities warned beachgoers to stay away from the ocean side, where waves could reach up to 10 feet.
In Sag Harbor, one third of the boats were taken out of the water.
The Red Cross said it had 50 shelters, including one dedicated to housing pet owners and their animals, that could be opened with five hours’ notice at locations across Long Island.
Despite pronouncements that Long Island doesn’t appear to be in the path of a direct hit from Earl, a hurricane expert said residents should remain alert.
“These things are completely unpredictable beasts,” said Steven Englebright, the curator of geology at Stony Brook University who is also a New York state assemblyman.
New York City officials said they expected to see only side effects of the storm — mostly rain, and winds of up to 20 mph, with possible soil erosion on the beaches and flooding along the oceanside coasts of Brooklyn and Queens.
The warnings about Earl touched off plenty of storm preparations but seemed to do little to slow the enthusiasm of people looking for the last of summer fun.
As rain fell intermittently in the late morning and early afternoon Friday, dozens of people rode bikes and walked with their small children on streets with pleasant names like “Toysome Lane” and “Old Town Road.”
Where those streets intersected just past “Gin Road,” a sign noted that Southampton was the oldest English colony in the state of New York. It was founded in 1640.
At a nearby entrance to the ocean, a red sign warned: “Swimming prohibited until further notice.”
Matt Riebenfeld, 41, of Hampton Bay was pulling fishing gear from his car just as the pace of the rain picked up. Like a surfer thrilled by the challenge, he looked forward to the havoc posed by rough seas.
“Stripes like the rough water,” he said, using a fisherman’s lingo for Striped Bass. He said he doesn’t eat or keep what he catches, tossing them back into the water instead.
And he said the rough waters made fishing “absolutely more challenging” because the large waves can free the fish from the hooks.
He said he doubted that the owners of shorefront homes that McLauchlen said are measured in the tens of millions of dollars were too concerned about Earl.
“If you can afford a piece of property here, you don’t worry about the weather,” he said.
Then he asked that he not be made to look critical of the wealthy homeowners.
“I do love rich people,” the roofing and siding laborer said. “If they weren’t out here, I’d be out of a job.” Riebenfeld, in a thick raincoat and long black boots, was dressed to outlast the storm.
“I believe in fishing right until you can’t fish no more,” he said.
On the other side of town, the annual Indian Shinnecock Powwow was getting ready to start on the Shinnecock Indian land right around the time Earl was scheduled to debut its heaviest rains.
A foreshadowing of the deluge was falling upon the head of powwow co-chairman Lance Gumbs when he chuckled mightily at the suggestion that the event could be canceled.
“This is Indian country,” Gumbs said as drums and Indian chants rose from a group practicing just beyond a fence along the grounds. His lips then curled up to make a smile before he spoke again.
“We don’t cancel because of a storm!”
By LARRY NEUMEISTER,Associated Press Writer
Associated Press writers Sara Kugler Frazier in New York and video journalist Ted Shaffrey in Montauk contributed to this report.
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.