Hunting Island beach, campground and state park did not sustain any major damage from Hurricane Dorian, but clean up efforts will continue for several days to come as the park remains closed to the public.
“It just looks like a hurricane hit it,” said park ranger, Carl Berube, on Facebook.
Berube reported in a Facebook post that there are lots of limbs and leaves all over the ground along with standing water that should dry up fairly quickly.
“No serious damage to any structures or to any campsites,” Berube said.
Whew!
Volunteers from Friends of Hunting Island State Park have been on hand to help get North Beach and the lighthouse grounds cleared of debris over the past two days. Trees were cut down and roadways were cleared of debris.
Another group is set to start cleaning up the South Beach parking/picnic area. Also, the entire campground and the pier parking area need to be cleared.
The entire park is still closed to the public, and according to Berube, it’s hopeful to have the campground open by next weekend, and the day use area ready before the end of the week.
“Just be patient,” he said. “Everyone is doing all that they can to get things back to normal as soon as possible.”
“This could have been so much worse and we are all fortunate that Dorian didn’t do a lot more damage.”
Exactly. It could have been worse, and we know that Hunting Island is fragile and really can’t handle much more like it saw with Matthew and Irma.
We’re grateful to the volunteers and park staff for their hard work in various efforts and we look forward to visiting when it reopens in the coming week or so.
