Tide of worry rising as beaches
wash away
BY TARA CONRY
DAILY NEWS WRITER
Tuesday, May 16th, 2006

When Ann Cavanagh recalls her childhood home on Point Lookout beach, she remembers a half-mile expanse of sand between her front door and the water's edge.

But six decades later, Cavanagh, 74, who now lives five houses away from the shore, says severe erosion has destroyed her beloved beach.

"Now we have nothing. We walk out, go over a dune and we're in the water," she said yesterday.

Cavanagh said she was shocked when she learned the City Council of Long Beach had this month unanimously rejected a plan that included provisions to save Point Lookout's ever-shrinking shoreline.

The $98 million federal storm protection plan, proposed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, called for dredging and construction of bulwarks to replenish the beaches at Point Lookout and Jones Inlet, and prevent future flooding and erosion.

While both beaches belong to the Town of Hempstead, the plan also included the creation of a storm-damage-reduction program for the city of Long Beach.

The main reason the Council voted against the plan was because "it didn't address flooding for the north side of the island, where the majority of flooding comes from," said Council President Leonard Reno. The project also posed future costs to the city, since the state and federal funding only covered initial costs, Reno added.

"The city is definitely open for a project, it just was not this project as it stood," Reno said, adding that the majority of Long Beach residents opposed the plan.

Reno said the Council agrees that the situation in Point Lookout must be addressed, but separately.

"The best thing for everyone involved would be if the Army Corps divorces Point Lookout from the overall plan ... and addresses it immediately and urgently," he said. "Waves are practically in people's backyards."

Local and federal politicians agree that the only way to save the disappearing beaches is to leave Long Beach out of the project.

In a letter sent Saturday to Lt. General Carl Strock, Commander and Chief of Engineers of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Sen. Hilary Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) call the Point Lookout and Long Beach portions of the plan "separable elements."

The legislators wrote: "While we honor the City Council's decision, steps need to be taken to address the erosion issue facing Point Lookout."

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Town of Hempstead Supervisor Kate Murray echoed this message yesterday at a press conference at Civic Beach in Point Lookout.

Together, they are making a bipartisan push for Congress to provide emergency funding for the proposed projects to save Hempstead's beaches.