Friday, November 28, 2008

And there she goes


Oh. The. Excitement.

First words from most lips at Thanksgiving (even the lips that had freshly arrived from Michigan): house on Plum Island.
Above is a photo I took of this same house back on May 21. My comment then?
So forget about Jeanne's going into the drink - take a look at this house, 5 or 6 houses north of center.
A few days later, the double-decker porch with the railings was lying on the beach.

This is the narrowest part of the ocean side of the island. I don't know who can stop a breach at this point, since no one is concentrating attention down there, where this house was, instead of at the center parking lot.

The ocean is now just one postage stamp-sized lot away from Northern Blvd. in 2 locations.

If I lived north of this spot on the island, on the ocean side, I'd be considering getting the hell out before we get our first winter storm.


5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dearest blogger Jillian,

Wise words indeed to the investor in ocean-front property, unless one invests in a dwelling located at the top of a sturdy granite cliff.

Or they should do what my relatives and I have done, which is the investing under an LLC in the multi-apartment buildings.

All of my wonderful Thanksgiving guests were watching the movie 'The Day After Tomorrow' and viewing the flooding of Manhattan Island instantly brought to my mind the image of Plum Island.

And yes, I did indeed cook the dinner of Thanksgiving yesterday (I had to spice it up with the ingredients of my youth as the Pilgrim recipes are decidedly bland to the taste) while watching the big parade and wondering just how the sneaky Indian people will blame the poor innocent members of Pakistani society for the goings on in Mumbai. They are a sneaky people, the devils of the sub-continent, and I was thankful that the waiters of the Mr India restaurant were not seen skulking in the bushes around my celebratory occasion.

- Mahatma Kote

Anonymous said...

And now we hear that looters were shown the way off of Plum Island after bringing backpacks and metal detectors to try and snag the poor lady's stuff. What is this world coming to? I hope the looters stepped in the copious amounts of dog doo-doo that can be seen on the beach these days.

Mary said...

I went back and read all your posts about PI beach erosion. Fascinating and a bit scary. As long as there are beaches, people will build (and rebuild) on them. About 10 years ago, my family had a reunion at Folly Beach near Charleston, SC. The cottage we rented was swept away during the following hurricane season. It wasn't as precariously positioned as the houses you've shown.

Anonymous said...

Hi,

What I find very interesting is this discussion by some on the evaluation of risk versus expense.

I'm waiting people to finally realize that modern insurance is a socialist concept.

One of the parts of consciousness is the ability to control one's environment.

We assign a risk and a cost to everything we do. Without this process, we would not repaint our houses since they will just fall down some day no matter what.

What would happen to the river if the island was breached. Changes to the island will dramatically effect the entire river community.

That is why we fix things. That is why we put all that rock into the water in the first place.

Sorry, but its ideas like this that I think about while reading the comments on the Daily News site (i won't even get into my ideas on the foolish idea of them making registration required (and the comments from people that complained)).

thanks,
sds

(ps. congrats Gillian on the return)

Gillian Swart said...

Thanks, sds, that's an important point. I was at a meeting at PITA hall last Friday, and the suggestion was made that maybe the groins should be removed.

But now they, and the jetties, have become part of the environment, haven't they? What's done is done.