Sonja, Celeste and I walked around Montrose Point today to investigate the aftermath of the Halloween 2014 storm. The shoreline has been altered by the storm, which included 20-foot waves on Lake Michigan and water washing over Lake Shore Drive in places. We spent some time in the dune area and discovered that some of the beach is gone. There's now a little arm of water extending into the dunes (above). Much of the area seen in the picture was a sandy beach previously.
During the storm, water washed over the pier and into this area. The arm of water extends all the way here right now. There were a lot of stones and debris left from the storm.
This photo shows the high water line and was taken very close to the previous photo. The water rolled the marram grass and its rhizomes into the clumps you see at right.
Water would have been washing right into this section of the dunes on Halloween, likely at a height above little Celeste. You can get a good look at the marram clumps here.
This area is part of the foredune and is typically very dry. You could see that water had washed away much of the sand and vegetation in this area.
This is one of my favorite views in the city, looking north to the high-rises of Edgewater. The cottonwoods are at the top of the highest point in the dunes. Water didn't quite make it to the trees, but it came pretty close.
