For years, Lynn Laskos, whose Southold home is located at Hashamomuck Cove, has dreaded each new storm, fearful each time that the waves battering the shoreline would break through and flood Route 48, making the roadway impassable and putting lives and homes in jeopardy.
Today, as fierce surf pounded North Fork shores, Laskos said her concerns were heightened.
Posting photos of the waves slamming the beach today, Laskos wrote, “This is Hashamomuck Cove. It is not high tide yet and the water is approaching County Road 48 in Southold. The homeowners have always said not if, but when, the Sound will wash away County Road 48. Is today the day?”
According to Laskos, the United States Army Corp of Engineers completed their feasibility study, which commenced in March of 2014, in the spring of 2015 — but findings will not be released until March of 2016.
Southold Town Supervisor Scott Russell said today that once those findings are revealed, the “study will outline various options that could address the problem. After that, the decisions that have to be made are who is going to do the work and how will it be paid for.”
Neighbors rejoiced in 2014 when the long-anticipated feasibility study at Hashamomuck Cove began, the $2.6 million project fully funded by the federal government.
“This study, which should take about six months to complete, is the first step that must be completed before any work can be undertaken,” former Congressman Tim Bishop, a strong advocate for the residents of Hashamomuck Cove, said at the time.
According to the United States Army Corp of Engineers, the study was to encompass Hashamomuck Cove, located on the Long Island Sound, with the study area initially to extend along both the Long Island Sound and Peconic Bay, east to Orient Point and west to, and including, both sides of Goldsmith Inlet.
That study area was later focused solely on Hashamomuck Cove, to the dismay of neighbors in the Goldsmith Inlet community.
The study area, the Army Corps said at the time, included several businesses and private homes that were subject to “substantial overwashing and erosion during coastal storms. Additionally, County Road 48 may be subject to undermining along Hashamomuck Cove.”
A federal shoreline protection project along State Route 25 was completed in 2011, which was damaged due to erosion of the shoreline.
Laskos has cried out for years over conditions at Hashamomuck Cove, especially after extreme weather events including Sandy.
One of the most critical concerns, Laskos has said, has been the fear that the flooding from the Sound could breach County Road 48, making it impassable in the event of an emergency when residents to the east might need to evacuate. Gas and water mains could be crippled during such an event, she said. The elderly and infirm could also be deeply impacted, she added.
Her home and others along the shoreline are the only structures standing between the Sound and County Road 48 as the beach continues to erode, Laskos said.
