Fire Island gets $3.5 million in federal repairs for storm damage on eastern end

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has approved $3.5 million in federal funding in advance of doing emergency repairs on eastern Fire Island following a series of devastating winter storms that washed away dunes and coastline beaches.

State and federal officials announced Monday that the Army Corps’ New York district office has approved the request for an “emergency storm” determination for the barrier island.

The $3.5 million will be used for design and engineering work before the Army Corps begins the repairs from Ocean Bay Park in the west to Cherry Grove, Fire Island Pines, and Davis Park in the east, officials said.

To lay the groundwork for the repairs, the Army Corps’ New York district is starting a detailed survey of existing topographical conditions on eastern Fire Island — information considered essential to the project, state officials said. The work, which will also include a design of sand placement, is expected to take several months.

The emergency repairs are expected to begin in the fall, although Army Corps officials hope to expedite the timeline, an agency spokesman said.

The total price tag of the repairs has yet to be determined, although Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said additional funding is expected to be approved by the Army Corps.

The Army Corps is “pleased to be taking the next step in the process by beginning the engineering and design phase concerning emergency coastal repairs on the eastern end of Fire Island,” said Col. Alexander Young, the Army Corps’ New York district commander.

The Army Corps on Jan. 26 issued an emergency declaration to expedite evaluations of needed repairs on Fire Island after two January storms, on the heels of a mid-December storm, unleashed a wave of damage along the Atlantic Ocean coastline, wiping out dunes and beaches. The National Park Service said there were several overwashes but no breaches from the storms.

Andy Tobias, who owns a home in Fire Island Pines, said the recent storms put the entire community in danger.

“Our little sandbar protects Long Island, which is the bigger sandbar that protects Connecticut,” Tobias said. “My house, and the other 60 or 70 houses on the ocean are in real danger and the houses behind them are in real danger … It's precarious out there.”

The state previously allocated $3 million to Suffolk County for an interim project to immediately reduce risk to some of the most vulnerable Fire Island communities, including Fire Island Pines and Cherry Grove, by pumping sand onto eroded beaches. That work, officials said, is nearing completion.

Brookhaven officials are also spending up to $500,000 to place sandbags at eastern Fire Island communities such as Davis Park and Seaview.

“While the stopgap project went a long way to reinforcing our dunes, the island is still highly vulnerable to future storms, and the restoration of the beaches cannot come quickly enough,” said Tom Ruskin, president of the Seaview Association.

The Army Corps had initially balked last October when Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand asked the agency to authorize an emergency sand replenishment project to repair Fire Island's damaged shoreline following a September storm that wiped out wide swaths of beaches.

The Army Corps said at the time that the damage was not severe enough for federal assistance. But in December the agency said it would reconsider after Long Island officials said the damage would hinder emergency vehicles that use the beaches as roads to respond to fires.

By Robert Brodsky

robert.brodsky@newsday.com@BrodskyRobert

Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.