Rockaway’s Beach Vanished Overnight
The weekend’s deadly nor’easter didn’t just hit New York; it chewed right through our coastline. The seaside stretch in Queens now looks more like the steep cliffs of Ireland than a family beach. Ferocious tides racing up to city streets traced spirals of black sand and dangerous drop-offs left behind where giant chunks of Rockaway are gone.
At Beach 149th, the transformation is terrifying. What was once a dune pile is now a 14-foot-tall sand cliff. The storm’s waves crashed over the jetty, leaving residue on railings that shows the water rose 26 inches high on the boardwalk. This isn’t just bad weather; it’s a total erasure of the shoreline.
Where the Sand Went and Who Is Safe
According to reporting from the New York Post, a Parks Department worker told the paper that the sand didn’t just vanish into thin air. “The beach is pretty much gone,” the worker said on Tuesday as crews began replenishing the tons of lost sand. The worker explained exactly where the soil ended up: “All the sand here was taken away and ended up down there by Breezy Point.” A lot of sand was just delivered to Breezy Point, so they’re all really happy.
Part of the beach is saved from being completely dragged away only by that lone stone jetty at the federal park. Without it, the damage would have been catastrophic. Local surfer John Thuilot, 18, felt the raw power of the water firsthand. “I was standing on a sandbar a ways out, and I felt the entire sandbar get pulled out from under my feet and just disappear,” said Thuilot of Belle Harbor.
Meanwhile, in Brooklyn, high winds from the same storm ripped the exterior off a building at 61 Clarkson Ave. in Prospect Lefferts Gardens. Homeowners Thema Hepburn and Chester Dean were in bed when a loud boom shook their home. “I saw white debris in the air,” Hepburn said. Initially, I perceived it that way despite feeling slightly groggy. Security footage captured the siding smashing onto their car and front yard. The Department of Buildings issued a full vacate order, forcing the family and their tenants to leave until an engineer submits a report and a sidewalk shed is installed.
Our Coastline Is Under Attack
Let’s be real: this city is built on water, but we keep acting like the ocean is our friend. It isn’t. It’s a force that eats what we build if we aren’t careful. The fact that a Parks worker had to say “The beach is pretty much gone” tells you everything you need to know about the scale of this disaster. We are watching our city get reshaped by nature, and not in a good way.
It’s a blessing that the stone jetty held, but relying on luck isn’t a strategy. When a surfer describes a sandbar disappearing under his feet, that is a warning shot. If we don’t get serious about protecting our shoreline, we’re going to lose more than just sand. We’re going to lose the places that make this city unique. The cliffs at Riis Park are a stark reminder that we are one big storm away from losing our access to the water entirely.
The displacement of the family in Brooklyn is another blow. They lost their home to falling debris, not because of negligence, but because the wind was that strong. It shows that no part of the city is safe. From the cliffs in Queens to the shattered facade in Brooklyn, the nor’easter proved that our infrastructure is fragile. We need to stop pretending the weather won’t get worse and start building for the reality we face.
Crews have already begun work to replenish the tons of sand lost at Riis Park. The Department of Buildings has ordered the owner of the Brooklyn building to install a sidewalk shed and get an engineer’s report before the Hepburn-Dean family can return. Until that scaffolding goes up, that family remains displaced. We are waiting to see if the city can move fast enough to fix what the storm broke before the next one hits.
This is opinion and commentary from the RapForMayor team.
