Make New York Post a Preferred Source The weekend’s deadly nor’easter ate away giant chunks of the Rockaway coastline — making the seaside stretch in Queens look more like the steep cliffs of Ireland.
The storm decimated sections of the city beach at Jacob Riis Park, leaving behind dangerous drop-offs and spirals of black sand that traced the ferocious tides that raced as high as the city streets.
“The beach is pretty much gone,” said a Parks Department worker, who asked to remain anonymous, to The Post on Tuesday as crews began work on replenishing the tons of sand lost to the wicked weather.
“All the sand here was taken away and ended up down there by Breezy Point. So they’re all really happy and Breezy Point — they just got a lot of sand delivered,” he said.
The worker pointed to wooden jetties out on the shoreline, saying they were previously hidden under the sand and only unearthed when the waves dragged the sand off the beach.
The lone stone jetty at the federal park saved part of the beach from being completely dragged away, the employee said.
The storm’s waves crashed over the Beach 149th jetty and raced up the shore — turning a dune pile into a 14-foot-tall sand cliff, which The Post measured.
Residue left along the railings by the local bathhouse indicated that the sand rose as high as 26 inches when the waves were crashing on the boardwalk.
Local John Thuilot, 18, said he felt the power of the water when he joined a pack of daredevil surfers in riding the storm Saturday.
“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.
Riis looked like a construction zone Tuesday — a far cry from the serene shore that drew thousands of bathers just weeks earlier.
“It definitely looks different! You used to be able to walk through there by the jetty,” said Hazzard Ho, 32, who was shocked to find that he couldn’t traverse the beach with his Labrador mix, Chef.
“Now it just stops where that cliff is.”
The damage varied across the beachside area, with a resident reporting that almost 30 feet of beach was ripped away roughly 4 miles east of Riis Park.
“If it wasn’t for the new stone jetty, [the storm] would have taken most of the beach,” said Steve Closs, a retired FDNY lieutenant, of Beach 80th Street.
“The beach is almost totally gone,” said the former Bravest, raising concerns about how long it could take for the devastation to be repaired.
Riis Park is overseen by the National Parks Service, while the shores along the residential neighborhoods are cared for by the city and the US Corps of Engineers — a partnership that has proved to be a bureaucratic nightmare for residents who have been rallying for years to remove the useless deadly wooden jetties.
City Councilwoman Joann Ariola called the erosion a “tremendous cause for concern.”
“We can’t put this off and have work impact the summer season, nor can we leave residents unnecessarily vulnerable throughout the rest of storm season,” said the Republican, calling on the city’s Emergency Management department and the US Army Corps of Engineers to visit the scene immediately.
“Work needs to be done now, with clear timelines in place so that residents can be safe for any storms that follow this one, and Summer 2027 isn’t impacted next year.”
It’s not yet clear just how much sand was lost or how much it will cost to replenish the shores.
A 2013 project allocated a jaw-dropping $26.4 million to restore roughly 3.5 million cubic yards of sand lost during Sandy.
The Corps of Engineers told The Post it is currently assessing the situation to “put together a plan.
“It’s important to note that this project did suffer sand loss, but that also means it performed as intended by mitigating impacts from coastal flooding to the communities, reducing damage to infrastructure and property,” a rep said.
