A generational blizzard leaves a changed and damaged shoreline in its wake

It was the most ferocious storm seen in years. Shoreline residents and parks will be picking up the pieces for days or longer, and the cost to repair the damages won't be known for weeks.

From Hoover Beach to the Outer Harbor to Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Centennial Park and the Bird Island Pier, homes and recreation areas felt the brunt of the storm.

Times Beach Nature Preserve was "pretty well devastated" by the winds, said Jay Burney, a founding member of the Our Outer Harbor Coalition who also is chairman of the Friends of Times Beach Nature Preserve. 

"All along Fuhrmann Boulevard it was overtopped by water," he said. "There are a lot of dead birds we found out there, a lot of debris on the roadways."

At Hoover Beach in Hamburg, most residents left their homes during a mandatory evacuation. When they returned four days later, they found broken pipes and flooded rooms. Thick ice coated structures, protecting them from the logs and projectiles in the lake.

But for the longtime residents, "it's not the worst that they've seen," said Carrie Meyer, president of the Hoover Beach Community Association. 

"It seems like they're used to weather like this, they're used to kind of digging themselves back out," she said.

Further north, wooden and metal railings along the boardwalk at Gallagher Beach in Buffalo Harbor State Park were ripped away. Some have been replaced and repaired several times since a large seiche and storms in 2019.

There was another seiche during the blizzard. Seiches occur in Lake Erie when strong southwesterly winds push the waters toward its eastern shore, and the water sloshes back and forth like a large bathtub.

“Along with so many other property owners in Western New York, some local state parks incurred damage during the blizzard, specifically those along the waterfronts. We are continuing to assess damage and will work to have repairs made by the time nicer weather arrives," the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation said in a statement.

Boat launches and docks at Safe Harbor Marina appear compromised, along with ramps leading to the docks.

And the damage continued, with trees left on the ground from the state park to Times Beach, just south of the U.S. Coast Guard Station.

Erie County Executive Mark C. Poloncarz said it will probably cost millions to restore Times Beach.

"It looks like a hurricane did it, because a hurricane did hit, the equivalent of a Category 1 hurricane with 75 mph winds," Poloncarz said.

Erie County, which maintains Times Beach for the City of Buffalo, had its forester out to assess the loss.

"The trees did damage fencing on the Fuhrmann side of the property toward the road," Deputy Parks Commissioner James K. McDonald said in an email.

There also was damage to the fence and building on the northern side of the preserve, he said.

And it didn't stop there.

"We definitely sustained damage along the Outer Harbor trail," said Steve Ranalli, president of Erie Canal Harbor Development Corp.

He said some of the armored stone along the edge of the trail was washed away. Most of a 4-foot chain link fence along the slip at the former Pier site was wiped out by the ice, Ranalli said. 

A wall along the Outer Harbor edge is in need of repair, he said.

"When these storms come through, there's a spot there they really do break through at Times Beach and wreak some pretty significant damage," Ranalli said.

The trail parallel to Fuhrmann from Wilkeson Pointe to the state park remains open, as does the path by the lakeside bike park and event lawn, he said.

The harbor trail from the bell slip to Wilkeson Pointe was closed to assess the damage, he said. That's where huge piles of snow remain, after being removed from other locations. He said the public should stay off the snow piles.

"Every year we do some level of restoration out there. There's always seiche damage out there," Ranalli said.

The Ice at Canalside was impacted, but reopened to skaters Friday.  There were some washout areas in Broderick Park and fencing damage at the southern end of the park. Some segments of the Bird Island Pier shifted and need to be reset, and there was damage to docks at Erie Basin Marina, according to city spokesman Michael J. DeGeorge. 

Farther into Buffalo, Centennial Park sustained minor damage, said Katie Campos, executive director of the Ralph Wilson Park Conservancy.  

The railing along the sea wall was bent in several places and a couple of light poles were bent, she said. 

Crews had taken down trees in the park in preparation for construction of the $110 million transformation of the park. The trees were removed before the storm, and nothing worked on so far was damaged in the storm, she said.

The project will change the shoreline, and there will be a space for water to be absorbed and drain during storms, she said. Rolling hills will create a barrier to flooding.

But now, she said, "When there's a storm, the park floods every time."

While crews continue to assess the damage along the waterfront, some wonder how to make it more resilient.

"The future is kind of unknown at this point except that things are changing. I think that climate change is definitely having an impact on how we look at our waterfront," Burney said.

News Staff Reporter Sandra Tan contributed to this story.