Nancy Grant and George Vinick leap out of the way of a huge wave in front of Grant’s home in Neptune Park Monday. The water at 10 am was already breaching the seawall and both residents left their homes.
Having covered many hurricanes, blizzards and natural disasters for decades, I was ready for Sandy but I was still nervous. The hype was incredible.
“This is the largest threat to human life that our state has experienced in anyone’s lifetime,” said Gov. Malloy.
Whoa, that’s enough to make anyone nervous. While everyone in the state prepared and headed home to hunker down, the Courant photo staff headed out to their assignments along the shoreline. I was assigned to New London and got photos of the powerful storm surge by late afternoon. Once it was dark, I tried to hunker down at my hotel but then the power went off there so I headed out to try and document the storm as it happened. Not an easy task. The next morning, the devastation was huge in certain areas of the state and our photogs in Milford, Fairfield and Old Saybrook made incredible images. This was not the killer storm of our lifetime, however. Not by a long shot.
Several cottages that have stood by the water for decades were destroyed by Sandy’s massive tidal surge Monday night at Hawk’s Nest Beach.
Reese Garvin steps in between the waves to get a closer look at Hawk’s Nest.
The front of this cottage is missing leaving only the ocean to enter.
An Old Lyme firefighter checks the damage to this home on Sargent Rd. where a giant tree fell, crushing it Monday night.
The evacuation center at the Winthrop School in New London had to be evacuated at the height of the storm when the generator quit. Jan Dowling awaited a ride to the shelter in East Lyme.
John Carter, 16, of Old Lyme waited for the high winds to ebb before taking to the water for some kite-boarding Tuesday at White Sands Beach. As storm clouds re-appeared, Carter headed back to Griswold Point where he began.
Christopher Harding of Wethersfield walks around his family’s beachfront home at White Sands Beach Tuesday. Although the house is intact, more than 6′ of water traveled through the house and filled it with sand so it “almost” survived.