The Pillar Point storm of September 15, 2008

Pillar Point Storm ... 2008
It seems like this major storm hitting Pillar Point thing is becoming much too common. We were hit early in the morning of September 15, 2008. The winds were high and many trees were downed throughout the area, but it seems like the worst damage was done by the storm surge. It was estimated to be at about 5 feet but many claimed they saw it and it was higher, especially up in the mouth of Guffin Bay. In the picture of the Sea Doo at the bottom of the page, you will notice that it is sitting on the rocks. An hour before this picture was taken, we had retied the machine and it was in a foot or more of water. An hour or so later the water was back up. Some of the other pictures on this page show the water level fluctuations the morning after the storm. The wind shifts actually varied the water level a foot or more throughout the day.
The only damage we suffered, other than a few minor twigs and limbs in the yard was the loss of one of our retaining walls	This has become a family joke ... David Jr. built the other side and it withstood the storm ... Lowell built this side and he probably won't hear the end of it	The storm surge came over the wall and washed it out ... Lowell and Davy came down over Columbus Day week-end and rebuilt it.
Our next door neighbors also lost part of their wall ... this was just a few feet from where ours collapsed.	This is looking down past our shore ... you should be seeing 3 docks and 2 boats ... some of them didn't make it.	Our next door neighbor's boat was relocated about 250 feet to the yard 2 neighbors further down ... his dock is in the little bay another 300 feet or so down.
This is a close up of his boat.	The boat/lift of the neighbor two properties down survived ... his dock didn't ... it is underwater just off the port stern of the boat.	This is showing the bay where a lot of our neighbors' property ended up ... this dock belongs to the neighbor three doors up from us.
This is a close up of one dock ... our neighbors were actually lucky ... they found all of their missing property ... some people are still looking for PWC's and other boats.	This Sea Doo belongs to the daughter of the neighbor on the other side of us ... its lines were broken and was battered around but stayed in the slip.	This is the hull of a sailboat that is floating upside down over a mile offshore ... later in the morning it had floated closer to shore a mile or so beyond us and some swimmers went out and retrieved it.

Pillar Point Storm ... 2008