After Irene

East Lyme, CT, USA

Damaged dock

Wooden dock damaged by Hurricane Irene

East Lyme, CT, USA

This wooden bathing dock is on a beach near East Lyme in Connecticut. It's been a fixture for as long as I can remember, and I've used it in a number of my images, taken from different angles, under different conditions. In the late fall, they take up the wooden boards and leave the skeleton of the dock to ride out the winter; in spring, they put the boards down again. It's not the sturdiest of structures, but it's weathered many winter storms without taking major damage.

When Hurricane Irene hit in August 2011, the dock and the adjacent boardwalk and beach huts took a pounding from the heavy seas. The wooden railings of the dock have been mostly torn away, and the iron posts supporting it are bent or uprooted.