Southold Town Supervisor Set To Weather Sunday's Nor'Easter, Looks Ahead At Solutions, Such As Raised Roadway

NORTH FORK, NY — With a powerful nor'easter set to pummel the North Fork Sunday into Monday, Southold Town Supervisor Al Krupski said officials are prepared and ready to weather the storm.

Krupski said he called a team meeting recently to discuss preparedness. "We want to do it while the sun's shining," he said.

He and Southold Town Police Chief Steve Grattan also attended a meeting in Yaphank in recent months to discuss storm preparedness and discuss channels of communications with county officials during storm events, he said.

This week, Krupski said he received an email from Southold Town Highway Superintendent Dan Goodwin, discussing his efforts to ready for the storm. "He's got all the trucks and equipment filled up with fuel and completely ready," Krupski said. "If a tree is down, he communicates really well" with PSEG Long Island and other agencies, he said.

Discussing areas of Southold Town that have long been considered vulnerable during storm events, Krupski, a former Suffolk County legislator, said he focused efforts on a coastal resiliency study; that study indicated that there were two areas of specific concern in terms of flooding — Southold Town Beach and Mattituck Inlet.

To that end, he said: "We have been urging the county to elevate County Route 48," in those areas, Krupski said.

In 2024 Krupski first told Patch that he and town officials were working on the flooding map, to pinpoint trouble spots, with a focus on addressing areas to ensure residents have access to different routes and can travel alternative routes during flooding, rather than driving through saltwater.

That map, Krupski told Patch Sunday, is currently being worked on by town engineers and is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

Krupski commended PSEG Long Island for their efforts at storm hardening in the area in recent years.

As with any storm, Krupski said, preparedness is key. "As a community," he said, "we need to take care of each other. We don't want to be unprepared and put emergency response at risk."