Greetings from MTK: In a Fog

Every morning that I wake up to find Montauk blanketed in fog, I think of my dad.

"It'll burn off by noon," he used to tell disgruntled tourists who filed into the front office at the first sign of bad weather. Although he was a motel owner, not a meteorologist, he was right 95% of the time. It usually did. Not this week, however. We've been in a fog for the past two days. I half expect to see Adrienne Barbeau walk out of it. Something, I suppose, that is not outside the realm of possibility, given that the star of the cult classic recently showed up as Victoria's mother on Revenge, a show set in the Hamptons.

View of the Surf Club from our deck this morning

In a fog

I don't know whether it's the shroud-like weather, however, or the piece in the East Hampton Star this week on the erosion wrought by Sandy, that has me thinking somber thoughts this morning. While members of the Montauk Citizens Advisory Committee are set to recommend the creation of a tax district of downtown businesses that could fund beach restoration to the East Hampton Town Board, the Star reports, some wonder "if anything can be done to stave off disaster and save the beaches, motels, Ditch Plain area, and the entire downtown."

At the Committee's meeting last Monday, the Star went on to note, Chip Duryea, who owns the wholesale seafood business and the Lobster Deck on Tuthill Road, recalled seeing the sea rise when Hurricane Carol hit in the 1950s. He and his mother, he said, watched as a wave rolled right into the IGA parking lot. A sobering thought for us on Surfside Avenue, since it's a straight path from the IGA to our house.

If a storm of that magnitude hit, we wouldn't need go-bags, we'd need a go-boat.

What it means to be oceanfront these days

Meanwhile, storm recovery continues. This is the scene over at the beach in the Soundview section of Montauk that runs west from the jetty by Gosman's. The dunes that divided the beach from Flamingo Road as it wraps around on its way back over the West Lake Drive were completely obliterated by this winter's storms.