Superstorm Sandy

Tag Archives: Superstorm Sandy

Friday Flashback #320

Posted on November 4, 2022 | 10 comments

What were you doing 10 years ago today?

If you lived in Westport — or anywhere in the Northeast — you were probably cleaning up from Sandy.

The superstorm — not even a hurricane when it landed here — roared in on October 29, 2012.

Here are some scenes from those days:

Hillspoint Road, at what was then Elvira’s and Positano. (Photo/Matt Murray)

Old Mill Beach (Photo/Matt Murray)

Burying Hill Beach.

Saugatuck Shores. (Photos/Inklings staff)

Underneath this garage was a 1960 Mercedes. (Photo by Kathie Bennewitz)

North Avenue.

The Westport YMCA childcare center (then on Church Lane).

The sign on the garage says “Welcome to the Beach.” (Photo/Betsy Phillips)

Public Works took care of a section of boardwalk that ended up far from home.

The view from the Longshore golf course parking lot. The Parks and Rec office is in the background.

Grove Point Road.

Soundview Drive was “sandy” indeed.

Every grill on Compo’s South Beach was knocked over.

Colony Road. (Photo/Drew Angus)

Playhouse Square.

The corner of Highwood Lane and Calvary Road. (Photo/Larry Perlstein)

North Compo Road.

Cob Drive.

North Turkey Hill Road.

Hillspoint Road, near Schlaet’s Point. (Photo/Betsy Phillips)

Main Street.

Soundview Drive. (Photo/Mary Hoffman)

The Wakeman Field port-o-potties.

This satellite image of then-Hurricane Sandy,

Where were you when Sandy struck?

What lessons have we learned (or already forgotten) since then?

Click “Comments” below to share!

(From Superstorm Sandy — and through Hurricanes Irma and Isaias, blizzards, and through gorgeous weather too — “06880” is here for you. Please click here to support your hyper-local blog.)

10 Comments

Posted in Friday Flashback, Weather

Tagged Superstorm Sandy

You Are A Westporter If…

Posted on December 11, 2015 | 163 comments

The other day, a friend made a confession.

“I’ve only been here 10 years,” she said. “I’m not really a Westporter, am I?”

Bill Clinton once famously explained, “That depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is.”

The definition of the word “Westporter” seems similarly slippery.

Here’s what I think. You’re a Westporter if:

You give directions using a landmark that no longer exists. “Take a right at what used to be Dairy Queen” works. So does “Woody’s” or “Swanky Frank’s” — because, as real old-time Westporters know, they’re all the same spot.

You lament the changes you’ve seen since you’ve been here. That can be the demolition of the Compo Inn or the Victorian house on Gorham Island; the closing of Klein’s or Sally’s Place (bonus points if you know how they’re related), the end of the Arrow, Jasmine or the Blu Parrot. You’re even a Westporter if you moved here in June, and are sorry the Red Barn closed a month later.

You can’t believe how rude people are today. It’s amazing, you say, how much more self-centered are compared to the 1950s/1970s/1990s/2000s/2013.

You are able to compare today’s young athletes to yesterday’s. It doesn’t matter whether the name you use is Nooky Powers, Cannonball Baker, Steve Baumann, Lisa Brummel, Lance Lonergan or Jon Baumann (not related to Steve) — if you toss out a reference like that, you’re a Westporter.

You can reference a weather event. The Hurricanes of 1938 and ’55; the Nor’easter of 1993 and Superstorm Sandy all count. The key is to mention how much snowier/rainier/hotter/colder things are/are not compared to the “old days.”