Solutions to Southold Coastal Erosion and Property Damage to Hit the Table Next Month

Houses along on the Long Island Sound in Southold took yet another beating from this week’s winter storm — but property damage from was already extensive.

“I think we’ve all battened down the best that we can,” said homeowner Lynn Laskos on Tuesday before another round of heavy snow and winds hit the North Fork. “But you know, the water is bigger than us.”

Laskos, has summered in Southold since she was a child, said she received emergency permits from the state Department of Environmental Conservation to protect her Sound-side house with boulders and sand reinforcement after the late December blizzard, which nearly wiped out the waterfront portion of her residence when it tore out the beach leading up to her bulkhead.

The buffering offered some protection against this week’s storm, but Laskos said that homeowners along Hashamomuck Cove have been trying for 6 years to get federal, state, county and town leaders to support a group effort to shore up the beachfront by repairing groins and bulk headings. And now, 11 houses are on the verge of collapsing into the Sound.

“We are the narrowest strip on the whole North Fork,” Laskos said. “We are the buffer to Route 48. Now is the time to speed up the process — there is no more time for studies.”

Laskos and her neighbors will get a chance to discuss how to shore up the shoreline on Feb. 2, when Supervisor Scott Russell, Southold Town Board members, representatives of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, and the Suffolk County Department of Public Works meet withto discuss short-term and long-term solutions to erosion prevention along that stretch of the Long Island Sound.

The meeting takes place at Southold Town Hall on Feb. 2 at 1 p.m. and is open to the public.

Last week, Supervisor Russell, Southold Town Director of Public Works Jim McMahon and representatives from the Federal Emergency Management Agency evaluated the damage to Hashamomuck Cove and to— which was virtually washed away into the Sound along with huge chunks of its parking lot on Dec. 26. McMahon said that the storm destroyed about $200,000 worth of asphalt improvements the Town recently made to Town Beach’s parking lot, which remains closed to the public.

McMahon said that FEMA has not yet declared the area to be in a state of emergency nor did he know yet if the town will be reimbursed to repair the damage to the parking lot. The Department of Environmental Conservation also recently put in a drainage overflow system in the Town Beach area, and that is now exposed due to storm damage. They will meet and assess further damage that might have been caused this week at the February meeting.

McMahon added that the winds from this week’s storm also made the much-needed dredging ofn Peconic more difficult.

“But whatever Mother Nature throws at us, we’re ready for it,” he said.

Laskos said she’s looking for some sort of light at the end of the tunnel during the Feb. 2 meeting.

“We can’t stop the high tide from coming whether we like it or not,” she said. “But this is one of the most beautiful places on Earth. We need to know what the next step is to stabilize that beach.”

Andrea Aurichio contributed to the reporting of this article.