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Monday, April 16, 2007

Storm Aftermath


I went out to Baxter Road this morning to observe the storm damage to the man made bluff. It was horrific. A huge section of the man made bank was lost last night. When I was there, I observed hundreds and hundreds of 12' pressure treated four by four pieces of wood floating around and drifting to the north towards Hoicks Hollow and Great Point. The site was littered with empty coir bags. Several sections of terrace measuring between 20 and thirty feet in length were floating dangerously out to sea. The people responsible for building this bluff have an enormous clean up on their hands. Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of pieces of lumber and huge sections of terrace are going to be littering our beaches in the next several days. Also, there are hundreds of empty coir bags drifting around offshore endangering birds, whales and fish not to mention boats transitting the area. People don't realize how bad this is until they go out there and see it for themselves. I took the above clip of the man made bluff project this morning about two hours before high tide. Here are some pictures I took-

This is looking north towards Sankaty Light. Notice all the sediment in the water and how far it extends out to sea.

Here a large section of the man made bluff was washed out to sea leaving several empty coir bags behind. These empty coir bags will eventually break loose from the beach and drift out to sea.

This shot is a section of the bluff that had at least two sections of the terrace removed by the waves. As I said before, these terrace sections are between 20 and 30 feet long.

This picture was taken from the Polpis Road looking towards the opening of Sesachacha Pond. Notice the waves breaking over the dune into the pond. Sorry for the poor quality of the picture.

2 comments:

jared said...

A buddy emailed me last night -- apparently Esther's is an island again...anyone have any shots?

Martie said...

Jared, I'm still trying to verify this rumor. I'm busy surveying the total failure of the man made bluff out at Baxter Road. I'll try to get out to Smith's in the next few days to have a look see. Stay tuned.