Hurricane Sandy made U.S. landfall, coincident with astronomical high tides, near Atlantic City, New Jersey, on October 29, 2012. The storm, the largest on historical record in the Atlantic basin, affected an extensive area of the east coast of the United States. The highest waves and storm surge were focused along the heavily populated New York and New Jersey coasts. At the height of the storm, a record significant wave height of 9.6 meters (m) was recorded at the wave buoy offshore of Fire Island, New York. During the storm an overwash channel opened a breach in the location of Old Inlet, in the Otis Pike High Dunes Wilderness Area. This breach is referred to as the wilderness breach (fig 1).

Fire Island, New York is the site of a long term coastal morphologic change and processes project conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). One of the objectives of the project was to understand the morphologic evolution of the barrier system on a variety of time scales (days - years - decades - centuries). In response to Hurricane Sandy, this effort continued with the intention of resolving storm impact and the response and recovery of the beach. The day before Hurricane Sandy made landfall (October 28, 2012), a USGS field team conducted differential global positioning system (DGPS) surveys at Fire Island to quantify the pre-storm morphologic state of the beach and dunes. The area was re-surveyed after the storm, as soon as access to the island was possible. In order to fully capture the recovery of the barrier system, the USGS Hurricane Sandy Supplemental Fire Island Study was established to include collection in the weeks, months, and years following the storm.

As part of the USGS Hurricane Sandy Supplemental Fire Island Study, the beach is monitored periodically to enable better understanding of post-Sandy recovery. The alongshore state of the beach is recorded using a DGPS to collect data around the mean high water elevation (MHW; 0.46 meter North American Vertical Datum of 1988) to derive a shoreline, and the cross-shore response and recovery are measured along a series of 15 profiles. Monitoring continued in the weeks following Hurricane Sandy with additional monthly collection through April 2013 and repeat surveys every 2–3 months thereafter until October 2014. Bi-annual surveys have been collected through September 2016. Beginning in October 2014 the USGS also began collecting shoreline data at the Wilderness breach. The shoreline collected was an approximation of the MHW shoreline. The operator walked an estimated MHW elevation above the water line and below the berm crest, using knowledge of tides and local conditions to interpret a consistent shoreline. See below for survey collection dates for all data types.

This shapefile FIIS_Breach_Shorelines.shp consists of Fire Island, NY breach shorelines collected following an interpreted MHW shoreline as identified in the field.

Oct 28 2012 (MHW shoreline/Cross-shore data) Nov 01 2012 (MHW shoreline/Cross-shore data) Nov 04 2012 (Cross-shore data only) Dec 01 2012 (MHW shoreline/Cross-shore data) Dec 12 2012 (MHW shoreline/Cross-shore data) Jan 10 2013 (MHW shoreline/Cross-shore data) Feb 13 2013 (MHW shoreline/Cross-shore data) Mar 13 2013 (MHW shoreline/Cross-shore data) Apr 09 2013 (MHW shoreline/Cross-shore data) Jun 24 2013 (MHW shoreline/Cross-shore data) Sep 18 2013 (MHW shoreline/Cross-shore data) Dec 03 2013 (MHW shoreline/Cross-shore data) Jan 29 2014 (MHW shoreline/Cross-shore data) Jun 11 2014 (Cross-shore data only) Sep 09 2014 (MHW shoreline/Cross-shore data) Oct 07 2014 (Cross-shore data/MHW Breach shoreline) Jan 21 2015 (MHW shoreline/Cross-shore data/Breach shoreline) Mar 19 2015 (MHW shoreline/Cross-shore data) May 16 2015 (MHW shoreline/Cross-shore data/Breach shoreline) Set 28 2015 (MHW shoreline/Cross-shore data/Breach shoreline) Jan 21 2016 (MHW shoreline/Cross-shore data) Jan 25 2016 (MHW shoreline/Cross-shore data) Apr 06 2016 (Cross-shore data only) Apr 11 2016 (MHW shoreline/Cross-shore data/Breach shoreline) Jun 16 2016 (Cross-shore data only) Sep 27 2016 (MHW shoreline/Cross-shore data/Breach shoreline)