In short order over the last three weeks, two Category 4 hurricanes — Harvey and Irma — slammed into the U.S., wreaking havoc in Texas and Florida. At press time, what was left of Irma was pushing north from Florida.
The destruction has been massive. Congress approved, and President Trump signed, a $15.3 billion aid package for Texas alone. Florida’s damage will be historic, no doubt.
Long Islanders are all too familiar with the catastrophic devastation caused by a major hurricane. On Oct. 29, 2012, Superstorm Sandy leveled many areas of the South Shore. And it could have been a lot worse.
Long Island’s “mainland” is protected by a string of barrier islands. In between are thousands of acres of wetlands, with hundreds, if not thousands, of mudflat islands, where only Spartina marsh grass grows. In the event of a hurricane or tropical storm, when the Atlantic Ocean rushes toward the mainland, those mudflats act as giant sponges, soaking up the rush of water known as storm surge.
Without the mudflats between the ocean’s onslaught and us, we can only imagine the damage that Sandy could have caused — and the devastation a future storm might create if the mudflats didn’t exist.