The weekend’s deadly nor’easter stripped away huge sections of the Rockaway shoreline, leaving the Queens beach looking startlingly like the steep cliffs of Ireland.
At Jacob Riis Park, the storm ravaged parts of the city beach, carving out dangerous drop-offs and twisting trails of black sand that showed how fiercely the tides surged—reaching heights near the city streets.
“The beach is pretty much gone,” a Parks Department worker told The Post on Tuesday, speaking anonymously as crews began bringing in sand to replace the tons swept away by the storm.
“All the sand here was taken away and ended up down there by Breezy Point. So they’re all really happy in Breezy Point—they just got a lot of sand delivered,” he said.
The worker gestured toward wooden jetties along the shoreline, explaining that they had been buried beneath the sand until powerful waves scoured the beach clean.
At the federal park, the lone stone jetty helped prevent the beach from being completely washed away, the employee said.
Waves spilled over the Beach 149th jetty and surged up the shoreline, transforming a mound of dunes into a 14-foot sand cliff, according to measurements taken by The Post.
Sand residue along the railings near the local bathhouse suggested that the waves pushed sand as high as 26 inches onto the boardwalk.
John Thuilot, 18, of Belle Harbor, said he experienced the water’s force firsthand after joining a group of daredevil surfers who took on 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,” Thuilot said.
By Tuesday, Riis Park resembled a construction site—a stark contrast to the calm shoreline that had attracted thousands of beachgoers only weeks earlier.
“It definitely looks different! You used to be able to walk through there by the jetty,” said Hazzard Ho, 32, who was stunned to discover that he could no longer cross the beach with his Labrador mix, Chef.
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“Now it just stops where that cliff is.”
The extent of the erosion differed along the shoreline. One resident said nearly 30 feet of beach had been torn away about four 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 who lives near Beach 80th Street.
“The beach is almost totally gone,” said Closs, a former member of the Bravest, as he questioned how long repairs to the devastated shoreline might take.
The National Park Service oversees Riis Park, while the beaches near residential neighborhoods are managed by the city and the US Army Corps of Engineers. That divided responsibility has frustrated residents for years as they have pushed to remove the dangerous, ineffective wooden jetties.
City Councilwoman Joann Ariola described the erosion as 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 Ariola, a Republican who urged the city’s Emergency Management Department and the US Army Corps of Engineers to inspect the damage 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.