Autumn in Seaford, 2020

Clicking on a photo will enlarge it.  Fulton Avenue runs parallel to the railroad two blocks north of it. Monroe Avenue goes directly south to the station.

 

 

The previous name was Cardoon's. What was the name before that?

Eight inches of heavy snow Feb. 5

Through the morning of February 5, 2016, Seaford received eight inches of heavy snow. The temperature was in the mid-thirties. In the afternoon, the skies cleared.

Clicking on a photo will enlarge it.

Autumn in Seaford

Any photo may be enlarged by clicking on it.

Snow and Ice, Jan. 23-26

Sometime in the 1970's, I joined many people skating on Tackapausha Pond.  I cannot recall skaters here in recent years, but on January 26, 2013, the ice was strong enough to hold an inch of snow.  Somebody had shoveled a far corner of the ice clear, and a few people were walking about.

Since the late 1600's, Seaford Creek has separated the Town of Hempstead (left and straight ahead) from the Town of Oyster Bay (on the right).  Tackapausha Pond flows into Seaford Creek, which here has gathered some ice in the past night or two.  The left fork is a short canal.  The photo was taken from Jetmore Place, Massapequa, looking north.

The Parkside Cafe on Adler Court, facing Seaford Creek, will reopen.  
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More photos from late January, 2013, are linked here. Captions will appear when you click on the photos. (Google+ albums are a bit tricky to view.)
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Sandy and Seaford creeks

Hurricane Sandy pummeled the south shore of Long Island with wind, tide, and rain. Damage extended across the island and hurt many people in their lives, with deaths and damaged homes.  In this post, I choose to look at a more limited topic, how the three north-south creeks in Seaford rose with the run-off, tide, and wind. I wish I had more facts to present, but I did not go out exploring during the storm. This narrative will probably contain errors.  I appreciate corrections and further explanations.
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Cedar Creek flows between Fir and Larch Streets.  I am quite certain it forms the western limit of the Seaford School District.  It emerges south of Merrick Road in Cedar Creek Park and flows into East Bay.  The dip in Merrick Road is quite obvious here, and on Tuesday it seemed to have pooled atop Merrick Road. Some residual debris was noticeable on Merrick Road near Willow Street, but I don't know whether it came from Cedar Creek's backup or some other source.
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It seems that a section of Seamans Creek was channeled by the construction of NY 135, as a 1903 map shows it beginning at a pond north of DeMott Avenue, almost at the water company property. Seaman's Creek runs along the west side of NY 134, under the railroad and Sunrise Highway, reappearing northwest of Brook Lane's cul-de-sac.  The creek goes under Alan Path, lingers west and north of Natalie Boulevard (where the 1903 map shows a larger pond), and passes under Woodward Avenue.  Some hours before the storm, the water had already risen to the height of adjacent lawns.  Overnight and later, I am told it closed Waverly Avenue. As far as I can determine, this closure on Waverly Avenue, just east of the NY 135 bridge, was the northernmost flooded road in Seaford, about 5.2 miles from the Atlantic Ocean.  That is, the wind-driven high tide had caused the level of Seamans Creek to cover Waverly Avenue there.
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Seaford Creek, the longest of Seaford's creeks, forms the border between the Town of Hempstead and that of Oyster Bay, a border which dates back to the mid-1600's and the era of Tackapausha.  It seems to form about Jerusalem Avenue and the north end of Tackapausha Preserve, flowing through the preserve to the lake at Merrick Road and then with waterside homes south of Merrick Road.  Early Monday afternoon, it overflowed two eastbound lanes of Merrick  east of Townsend Court.  As the "puddle" grew, police forbade traffic.  I think I can safely say that the puddle increased from south to north, showing that this was the effect of tide, not yet a heavy run-off from the lake.
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A friend pointed out that the height of a wind-driven tidal surge rises in narrow confines. That may explain why the canals of south Seaford rose to cover streets and to damage basements and ground floors of  homes.