Owner watches PI home topple

By Victor Tine
Staff writer

November 27, 2008 12:15 am

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PLUM ISLAND — In the end, the sea always wins.

Town officials ordered the demolition yesterday of a Northern Boulevard house that was left hanging precariously over the edge of a dune after Tuesday night's high tide tore away the house's two-level deck.

Geri Buzzotta, 79, the lone occupant of the house, spent Tuesday night at her daughter's house after the deck fell into the ocean. She was hustled out of the house yesterday morning by deputy Emergency Management director Tim Leonard when she tried to re-enter it.

"I thought I was going to have to throw her over my shoulder," Leonard said. Leonard also retrieved Buzzotta's Chihuahua, Oliver, and her prescription medications.

Buzzotta watched tearfully yesterday morning with family members and Plum Island friends and neighbors as police and fire officials secured the area. Utilities workers disconnected the electricity and water and sewer service.

Building Inspector Sam Joslin said he was compelled to order the house razed because it had become a public safety hazard and had the potential to become floating debris if it fell by itself.

At 4:30 p.m., an excavator from Pearson General Construction of Byfield toppled the house at 16R Northern Blvd. onto the beach 15 or 20 feet below. The excavator then lifted the debris back to its original site and mounded it up. Joslin said a roll-off container will be brought in and the debris carted away.

The building was on a concrete block foundation. The seaward side of the foundation collapsed shortly before yesterday's 10:06 a.m. high tide, and the waves continued to scour out the dune beneath the house.

The wood-frame, three-bedroom house tilted toward the ocean and was separating from the remainder of the foundation.

During the course of the day, two proposals were briefly raised as possibilities that the house could be stabilized enough for Buzzotta's family to salvage valuables and family mementoes.

In late morning, Plum Island Taxpayers and Associates President Ron Barrett and Wayne Capolupo, owner of the Salisbury-based SPS of New England construction company, explored the possibility of bracing the house from the beach below. After inspecting the structure, they decided they could not do so.

Police Chief Michael Reilly, who is also director of Emergency Management, said the structure was compromised and the first floor had collapsed, making entry impossible.

In the early afternoon, family members asked if they could push the house onto the beach at low tide and see if it would be possible to enter it. It would also have allowed for clearing the debris during daylight. The logistics of obtaining state regulatory approval, determining how the operation would proceed, getting the necessary equipment to the scene and pumping out the full tank of home heating oil made that plan unworkable.

The oil tank was not emptied in the morning, when electricity, water and sewer were disconnected because fire officials determined the tank was secure within the concrete block basement and would remain intact if the house slid off its moorings.

As the excavator did its work late yesterday, the scene illuminated by a large floodlight, Buzzotta stoically surveyed the wreckage of her full-time home since May and the property she and her late husband, Mario, had owned for more than 35 years.

While friends and family tried to comfort her, she said she had lost everything, including pies and side-dishes she had made for Thanksgiving and Christmas presents she had bought her family.

Also watching was Buzzotta's son, Paul, who said a photo of the rubble could be captioned "Your tax dollars at work," a reference to the long period of trying to get beach re-nourishment efforts going.

"I have no hard feelings for any individual," Paul Buzzotta said. "But we saw it in New Orleans and we saw it here. Our government is ill-equipped to deal with the tragedies of individual families."

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