SALON

Tuesday, Oct 30, 2012 10:45 PM UTC

Winds from Sandy make for good Chicago surfing

By

Topics: From the Wires,

Winds from Sandy make for good Chicago surfingOnlookers take photos as strong waves created by superstorm Sandy crash against the Lake Michigan waterfront, Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2012, on the south side of Chicago. Strong winds from the outer edge of superstorm Sandy are ripping up near-record high waves on Lake Michigan. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)(Credit: AP)

CHICAGO (AP) — Hundreds of miles from its turbulent center, superstorm Sandy’s outer bands were violent enough to rip up near-record high waves Tuesday on Lake Michigan, sending a community of avid surfers in Chicago into the cold, churning waters despite warnings from city officials.

Wave heights out in the middle of the lake reached 20 feet, short of the 23-foot record set last year by a strong storm pushing down from Canada. The difference this time is the winds are from the edges of what had been a tropical storm, one vast enough to reach hundreds of miles inland.

The enormous storm pummeled the East Coast, leaving millions without power, toppling trees and killing dozens. More than 600 miles away, the storm’s winds could still be felt, blasting across Lake Michigan at 54 mph, according to the National Weather Service.

“Oh, most people wouldn’t even come to the beach today, right?” said Jim Hoop, 50, who was among four surfers at a Chicago beach. “Good day to stay home. … These are the days we’re looking forward to.”

The high waves brought cargo shipping to a standstill on the Great Lakes. Freighters as long as 1,000 feet haul loads of iron ore, coal and other bulk commodities on the lakes. Most if not all have took refuge in harbors or bays to escape the storm’s wrath.

Several hundred residents of the lakeshore village of Pleasant Prairie in southeastern Wisconsin were urged to evacuate because of the effects of the storm, but officials said Tuesday there had been no reports of widespread flooding.

Sand whipped up by high winds spawned by the remnants of the hurricane prompted at least one northern Indiana school along Lake Michigan to cancel classes.

Ocean-like waves of around 10 feet crashed into the shoreline around Chicago, where the water can be as flat as glass on calm days and almost a tropical hue under a bright summer sky. On Tuesday, the water was dark, the color of slate.

At the 57th Street Beach, Hoop had just waxed up his board and was about to take a shortcut into the surf by scrambling from a promontory that juts out into the water. Hoop has surfed the spot since he was a young lifeguard in the early 1980s. But waves this high are a rare, maybe once-a-year occurrence, and he knew he had to take the day off from his real-estate job and hit the water. He wasn’t even deterred by the ache in his shoulder from recent surgery — or his wife’s worries.

“She thinks I’m crazy, but I met her at a lifeguard party, so she knew what she was getting into,” he said with a laugh.

Describing the feeling of catching such high waves on his home beach, he said, “those few moments … seem like forever. You’re going down that wave,” he said.

And then he paddled off, disappearing between the swells before catching a smooth ride to shore and diving into the foam with his arms outstretched.

Officials warned residents to stay away from the lakefront, and portions of the bicycle path along the shore were closed. Police officers had to chase a few runners off the path.

Meteorologist Andrew Krein with the National Weather Service said such high winds over the lake typically come with strong winter storms.

“The more unprecedented thing about this is that it’s the outskirts of a former tropical system,” he said. “… That’s very unusual. The fact that the system is covering such a large area. I can’t recall another system like this.”

Across the lake in Michigan, winds gusting to 64 mph sent two-story-tall waves crashing onto the shoreline. The thrill of the big surf attracted Cameron Mammina to the waterfront at St. Joseph, where he took his board out among the churning waves Tuesday.

“It’s pretty intimidating at times,” said Mammina, manager of a surf shop. “Any time you get hit by a big wall of water, you have to catch your breath.”

___

Associated Press writers David Goodman in Detroit, Jeff Baenen in Minneapolis and John Flesher in Traverse City, Mich., contributed to this report.

More Jason Keyser.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 0 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
Journalists file suit against Manning's trial secrecy: Plaintiffs including Glenn Greenwald and Julian Assange demand press, public access to trial and documents
163 points164 points | comment
vote
Kaitlyn Hunt refuses plea offer, will go to court over high school relationship - The 18-year-old rejected a deal that would have labeled her a sex offender and placed her under house arrest
146 points147 points | 97 comments
vote
Report: Nearly a quarter of Americans struggle to afford food
137 points138 points | 13 comments
vote
Kaitlyn Hunt refuses plea offer, will go to court over high school relationship - The 18-year-old rejected a deal that would have labeled her a sex offender and placed her under house arrest
150 points151 points | 65 comments
vote
Ted Cruz against the world - How the Junior Senator is igniting the GOP civil war
77 points78 points | 21 comments

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: Chekhov's story mirrors Russia's own

Recommendations