Assateague Rebounding Six Months After Sandy

ASSATEAGUE -- Six months after Hurricane Sandy ravaged Assateague Island, severely eroding beaches and destroying many man-made structures, the barrier island is springing back to life and is largely ready for another summer season, but some reminders of the storm are still present.

The Assateague Island National Seashore took a severe beating when Hurricane Sandy roared through the area in late October with considerable erosion to the beaches, which breached in a few spots, and to the natural and man-made dune line. The front of the dune line sheared off on the ocean side leaving sand fences, railings and other structures completely erased or dangling from their supports in many cases.

The beaches were littered with storm debris including battered sand fences, drift wood, relics from former storms and shipwrecks and most noticeably, old tires. In the 1970s, thousands of old tires were banded together to create an artificial reef off the coast, which seemed at the time to be a good idea, but the reef has broken apart over the decades and the tires are often deposited on the beach at Assateague after storms and Sandy was no different. In the days after the storm last fall, tires could be seen strewn on the beach as far as the eye could see.
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