VIDEO: Severely Damaged Shenorock Club Starts Cleanup

The Long Island Sound gently lapped against the shore and the soft sound of the waves receding created a peaceful background for a destructive scene at the Shenorock Shore Club Thursday afternoon. 

Super Storm Sandy’s waves and wind brought the worst destruction the club has seen since Hurricane Andrew, the Nor-easter of ’92, said Building and Grounds Maintenance Manager Marin Vidales.

Sandy brought four feet of water into the club. Her waves and wind ripped apart the back deck and main pier. Shingles, doors, windows and parts of the main house’s roof were lost to the elements. Almost all of the club's 81 cabanas are missing half their walls. Inside the stripped cabanas, beach toys and supplies still sit neatly on their shelves.

“We will come back and rebuild the club,” said Vidales as he prepared to meet with an insurance agent. Workers had spent the day reshingling parts of the roof and removing debris.

 “We need an engineer report to see what we can do. We will save what we can,” Vidales said.

Members have been offering to help the club but management is not accepting any assistance at the time due to safety concerns. There are sharp nails sticking out of wobbly pieces of the deck that remain.

Vidales expected damage but was not prepared to see the shore side of the club completely wiped out, he said.

Vidales left the club at 6 p.m. Monday when he heard wind and things blowing around, and it got dark. When he returned 12 hours later he was surprised that nothing was there.

“Quite honestly I didn’t think it was going to be that bad. When nothing was there it was unbelievable,” he said.

While the club suffered a lot of damage, some things remain intact. The floor of the main ballroom still looks ok and the pool is still in good shape, Vidales said. Also, the club’s harbor side house and dock saw no damage.

The harbor side will be open once the club’s power is restored, Vidales said.

Down the street, Coveleigh Club fared much better. The pier and dock will need to be fixed, but the club house and pool suffered no damage.

“Still standing here majestically for 110 years,” said Ted Hennes, Manager of the club.

Coveleigh was originally built in 1904 by a Wainwright brother to serve as his home so he built it on the safest part of Milton Point, Hennes said. Hennes expects clean up to be done in about a week and will open the club as soon as electricity is restored.

At the tip of Milton Point, the American Yacht Club had several boats piled into each other, stuck behind one of the front gates. The City of Rye said AYC suffered significant damage, but Shenorock was reportedly hit the hardest. 

Back on Milton Road, the City of Rye's boat basin fared well, despite several feet of flooding, said some boat owners who were there checking on their vessels Thursday. 

"I am three for three," Andy Bodner said of his three boats, which all escaped Sandy unscathed. "We were very lucky," he said, adding that he had expected the damage to be much worse.

According to Bodner, there was minimal damage at the basin, a fence broke and  a few boats floated off their blocks, but even those boats were not seriously damanged. 

View video and photos of the Shenorock's damage by clicking through the photos above.

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