SANDWICH — While the blizzard surged its way through Saturday it was "a little bit of deja vu" for Sandwich resident Candy Thomson, as planks from the iconic Sandwich Boardwalk were torn from the historic structure and lost at sea.

“It feels like 1992, when the boardwalk was destroyed by a series of storms. Locals fundraised and got in the marsh and rebuilt it,” said Thomson, a member of the Friends of the Sandwich Boardwalk.

“But then in 2018, we had another series of storms, and bad weather took the boardwalk out before the spring. But that’s always the case with structures that sit in the waters of Cape Cod,” she said.

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In the aftermath of the weekend nor'easter, the area surrounding the boardwalk is calm, silent and serene as winter shades of marshland peek through crisp, white snow. Besides the boardwalk's missing planks, bright yellow caution tape is the only indication of Saturday’s storm that caused “significant structural damage” to the boardwalk, said Heather Harper, assistant town manager in Sandwich.

“We have only conducted an initial assessment and that was this morning and yesterday — and that was during high tide,” said Harper. “Engineers will be back out to get a better look at the structural damage to the boardwalk. It will be several days, if not weeks, to find out what kinds of repairs will be needed.”

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Harper said that if any repairs are made they will be apart from the existing $3 million boardwalk reconstruction design plan, which was approved by the Sandwich Historic District Committee on Sept. 22, followed by the Sandwich Board of Selectman on Dec. 21. The approval will allow for the project to “move ahead with environmental permitting,” said Harper.

The town of Sandwich has been considering reconstruction of the boardwalk since 2018, as storms continue to take a heavy toll on the structure, deteriorating beams, posts, bracing and metal fasteners, according to the Sandwich Boardwalk Project website. As plans and assessments move forward, Harper said the town hopes to secure reconstruction permits within 2022, with full reconstruction beginning in 2023.

“We were hoping it (the boardwalk) could make it through two more seasons, although the damage we are seeing from this storm is completely anticipated,” she said. “It was a known risk for the boardwalk and has been for some time. We will do everything we can to evaluate feasibility for repair and how we can expedite permanent reconstruction.”

Peter Barlow, a Sandwich resident and civil engineer, recently assessed the boardwalk at the request of the Friends of the Sandwich Boardwalk, and said that while many of the boards “washed away” in the recent storm, the overall structure is fine.

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“Before I lost power, I thought more than likely the boardwalk is going to see a problem. It’s going to probably be submerged at high tide and the springers and boards are going to lift off of it and disappear — and surprise surprise — sure enough that’s exactly what happened,” Barlow said. “These rusted nails are about as thin as tacks in some spots and the buoyancy of the wood is going to lift it once the water levels reach the level of the boardwalk itself."

Barlow, who has worked in bridge design and construction, and railroad bridge work, said that, regardless of whether the boardwalk is fully replaced by the town, maintenance needs to be ongoing.

“The town needs to think about going out there every once in a while, and replace some of the attachments and the vents and the bolts. And then it would be fine,” he said. “We are talking maybe a couple thousand bolts, maybe 8,000 lag screws and there’s plenty of volunteers willing to do the work.”

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The boardwalk, which was originally built in 1875 at a cost of $200, has been reconstructed or rebuilt roughly seven times, according to Thomson. Because it’s a structure that “sits in salt water all the time,” it has always “been at the mercy of the weather.”

“The structure there now was built 30 years ago, and we have been waiting for a permanent solution since 2018. Nearly four years later, we are still waiting for the town to go forward with the federal and state permitting applications for replacement construction,” she said. “We are as puzzled as anyone else why this is taking so long. Now they are saying they are not going to do construction until fall of 2023, and the process for federal and state permits is taking longer. Something is going on and we don’t know quite what it is.”

Although Grays Beach Boardwalk in Yarmouth, more commonly known as Bass Hole Boardwalk, only suffered minimal damage to its railings during the recent snowstorm, the structure was closed after October’s nor’easter, said Bill Bonnetti, field supervisor for the Yarmouth Division of Natural Resources.

“Part of the entrance to the boardwalk was heaved up — it was a piling — in the first section of boardwalk. There was also some minimal damage to the railings. That was caused probably by a combination of the wind and the water,” he said. “We also had damage to our marina adjacent to the boardwalk that was caused because of the wind and the tides.”

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Typically, the kind of structural damage to the boardwalk only happens “in an ice event,” Bonnetti said. But because of coastal erosion, he anticipates further unsettlement to the boardwalk.

“Unfortunately, it (the boardwalk) has suffered damage before from significant storm events, and right now, especially with nor’easters, it’s very exposed,” he said. “It used to be more protected by the profile of Chapin Beach. But that profile has really changed, and it lost a lot of sand and it leaves Bass Hole Boardwalk and marina much more exposed.”

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The repairs to both the marina and the boardwalk, which Bonnetti hopes will occur by May 1, will entail using an extra-long piling to ensure the boardwalk is securely embedded into the ocean floor.

“Every time we suffer the damage, we don’t just rebuild. We try to adapt to mitigate future damage,” he said. “Unfortunately, the boardwalk is in a tough spot. It is very exposed.”

The intensity of the weekend storm was, in some measure, mitigated by its speed.

The relatively fast passage across the Cape and Islands along with storm surges that occurred outside of high astronomical tides, minimized the damage from erosion and flooding, according to town and county officials assessing the aftermath of the powerful storm.

“If it had taken its time moving through, we would have seen a lot more damage,” said Gregory Berman, the Coastal Processes Specialist for Barnstable County through the Cape Cod Cooperative Extension and the Woods Hole Sea Grant Program. Berman said the morning high tide on Saturday included a storm surge of 2 ½ feet, while the storm’s biggest surge of three feet happened at the afternoon low tide.

“I, and other people, had the impression it wasn’t that bad,” said Berman. “The hot spots will always get hit.”

Berman walked the Sandwich Cape Cod Bay beaches along Salt Marsh Road and North Shore Boulevard and saw that the stacked, fiber sand-filled rolls had done their job protecting homes, although many had been battered and would need to be repaired or replaced. A washover at Town Neck Beach pushed the guard shack back 20 feet into a guard rail and utility lines connected to the building pulled over a utility pole.

Before the nor'easter hit, there was some concern that wind-driven seas could cause flooding and erosion along Cape Cod Bay. Brewster Natural Resources Director Chris Miller said some of his town's bayside beaches did experience that, but it was relatively minor. Low-lying portions of Route 6A at Paines Creek and on the Dennis town line flooded but were still passable, said Miller, who was more concerned about a follow-up storm.

"Hopefully we don’t get another storm before we get a chance to repair (the damage)," he said.

Cape Cod National Seashore Superintendent Brian Carlstrom said his crews were still out evaluating the damage.

“We’re focusing on restoring visitor access (to beaches and facilities),” he said. The access road to Marconi Beach remained closed Monday, but crews had restored access to Coast Guard Beach and Nauset Light Beach in Eastham. Infrastructure like the pedestrian bridge over Nauset Marsh at Coast Guard Beach and the vehicle bridge connecting the beach parking lot to Doane Road were spared this time as was the stairway to the beach at Marconi Beach.

The opposite of erosion occurred at Herring Cove Beach in Provincetown, where front end loaders worked Monday to remove windblown sand from the parking lot.

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Carlstrom said his staff was working with the Truro town officials on next steps for a home on Ballston Beach, which had the dune scoured out from under it. The home is still standing on specialized pilings designed to survive dune migration, said Berman. Carlstrom said the house would have to be moved back.

“The usual places were underwater: the fish pier bulkhead, streets,” said Chatham Coastal Resources Director Ted Keon. North Beach Island overwashed in the same place where it has occurred over the past few years, and he said he heard that areas of Morris Island had some flooding.

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Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge on Morris Island, which has suffered some of the worst erosion on the Cape since the April Fools Day storm of 2017 opened a huge gap in the protective barrier beach, did not see significant losses in this storm, said Keon.

“I’m sure there was some retreat,” said Keon of the dunes that line the shore from Chatham to Orleans. “But it was not obvious that they got whacked big this time.”