Long Island state park ocean beaches remain closed to swimming due to dangerous surf conditions, officials say

After dangerous surf conditions prohibited swimming Thursday at many of Long Island's Atlantic Ocean-front beaches, officials said they expected to make a decision Friday morning about whether to lift the ban.

The conditions, officials said, were caused by a combination of Hurricane Franklin and a rare supermoon that also led to major flooding at Jones Beach and beach erosion at Hither Hills in Montauk, Robert Moses State Park and Gilgo Beach.

Swimming was prohibited Thursday at Jones Beach, Robert Moses and Hither Hills, said George Gorman, Long Island regional director of the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.

"Dangerous surf conditions have eased considerably, however there are still concerns regarding rip currents and high surf with crashing waves at the shore break," Gorman said Thursday evening.

"We will evaluate surf conditions again tomorrow morning," he added, just before lifeguards go on duty at 9 a.m. at Jones Beach and Robert Moses, and 10 a.m. at Hither Hills.

The beaches themselves remained open, Gorman said, and other Long Island state park beaches were open for swimming.

Swimming prohibited at town, county beaches too

Swimming was also banned Thursday in the Town of Hempstead for Point Lookout, Lido Beach, Lido Beach West and Atlantic Beach.

“Town of Hempstead beaches are open today, but swimming is red-flagged due to dangerous rip currents," said Hempstead Town Supervisor Don Clavin in a statement. "Lifeguards remain on duty to keep beachgoers safe.”

Swimming was also prohibited Thursday at Tobay Beach, according to Town of Oyster Bay spokesman Brian Nevin. 

In Long Beach, only waist-deep swimming was being permitted, said city spokesman John McNally.

Suffolk County was allowing swimming at Smith Point and Cupsogue county parks Thursday, according to its press office, but swimming was still prohibited at Nassau County's Nickerson Beach Thursday afternoon.

Facing flooded beaches

The expansive sand area at Jones Beach from Field 6 to Field 2 was underwater overnight except for some areas closer to the parking field, Gorman said on Thursday.

Parks officials, he said, built a wall of sand to prevent the flooding of the park's Central Mall and used bulldozers to create massive trenches to help hundreds of thousands of gallons of water recede back into the ocean. Video showed the massive amounts of water gushing through the trenches and back into the ocean.

Despite the flooding, there appeared to be no signs of beach erosion at Jones Beach, according to Gorman.

"Right now you have a tremendous amount of standing water on the sand," Gorman said. "We will probably have standing water remaining, but our goal is to have a significant amount of sand beachfront available for the public tomorrow."

The high rip current warning was expected to remain in effect through Friday evening.

Wednesday night's supermoon is partly to blame for the flooding, as its intensified gravitational pull makes tides higher. Then, there were also the storms in the Atlantic at the same time.

With AP

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.