Drew Scott, the former "News 12 Long Island" anchor, is turning his family's loss amid the deadly opioid crisis into an effort to try to "save another life." 

Mr. Scott's granddaughter Hallie Rae Ulrich died of an overdose in East Hampton on Sept. 7. The 22-year-old, a budding artist who graduated from Pierson High School in Sag Harbor in 2013, was found on the side of the road near Cedar Point Park. Her boyfriend, Michael Goericke, 28, overdosed at his mother's house in Flanders the next day and died at the hospital. 

Southampton Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman got in touch with Mr. Scott, who covered Mr. Schneiderman's career as a county legislator, and invited him to join a group he was putting together in an attempt to battle opioid addiction on the East End. 

The newly organized Southampton Town Opioid Addiction Task Force will present an aptly named forum, "It Hits Home," on Nov. 15 in Hampton Bays, and Mr. Scott will help moderate it with Mr. Schneiderman. Medical, mental health, education, and law enforcement authorities will come together to discuss the epidemic. Family members who have been involved in opioid addiction will speak about how they handled it. The task force, however, also wants a dialogue with the audience, as the group will look to residents as it searches for solutions to the crisis.  

"I'm not ashamed to tell people this happened to me, and if this happened to me this could happen to anybody," Mr. Scott said by phone on Monday. The stigma attached to opioid addiction is part of the problem. "If it's cancer, heart disease — no one is afraid to step forward and say, 'Yes, it affected my family.' " Opioid addiction should be no different. 

The figures are staggering. More than 500 people died last year in Nassau and Suffolk Counties, Mr. Scott said. Southampton Town Police Chief Steven Skrynecki told the task force at a recent meeting that there were five deaths related to overdoses in the town in 2016. So far this year, there have been 17. "And the year is not over yet," Mr. Scott said. "Our jaws dropped." 

“This is a national crisis that has hit home,” said Mr. Schneiderman, co-chairman of the Opioid Addiction Task Force. “Our community is coming together in an effort to prevent further tragedies.”

"This is a huge battle we've got to wage," said Mr. Scott, one he is all too familiar with. His granddaughter, who had grown up with her twin sister, Ellison, in his and his wife's home in Westhampton, had struggled with heroin addiction for two years. Her boyfriend "gradually introduced her to heroin." She went to rehab twice. In July, she graduated from the drug court run in Southampton Town.

It seemed she had kicked her habit, but Mr. Scott warned his granddaughter not to hang out with people who would lead her astray. The last thing she said to him was, "I'm not stupid." 

"It just seems so awful that so many of these kids, so many of them — they’re not criminals. They’re not junkies. They’re just kids that get caught up in something that is way bigger than them." 

Just weeks before Ms. Ulrich's death, Mr. Scott decided to retire. He has the time now to devote to the task force and to the effort to ensure that this kind of tragedy strikes no other family. "By the fickle finger of fate," he said. 

The forum on Nov. 15 will be held in the auditorium at Hampton Bays High School. Young people are being encouraged to attend, and participating school districts are offering volunteer hours. 

The task force is developing an action plan that it hopes to present to the Southampton Town Board by June 1. 

Voters in the Bridgehampton School District on Tuesday wholeheartedly approved a capital reserve expenditure for the installation of a new geothermal heating and cooling system as well as mandated repairs outlined in a five-year plan for the district’s buildings. There were 67 votes in favor and 13 against.

In December, Bridgehampton voters approved a $24.7 million bond to fund a 35,440-square-foot expansion and other renovations. They went back to the voting booths in May and authorized establishment of a geothermal and five-year plan reserve fund not to exceed $1.275 million.

Tuesday’s green light allows district officials to proceed with scheduling work on the new geothermal system as it prepares for the larger project, which is tentatively set to begin in April.

The southern pine beetle, which decimated pine forests in the southern United States and New Jersey before spreading to Long Island’s pine barrens, has reached East Hampton and devastated a six-acre portion of woodland in Northwest owned by the county and town. 

“Basically every pitch pine tree within the area” is infested with beetles, said Andy Drake, an environmental analyst for the town, who delivered the unwelcome news to the town board at a meeting on Tuesday. Some 800 trees are affected, he said. “These trees are going to die.”

The property is on the north side of Swamp Road between its intersections with Route 114 and Two Holes of Water Road. 

Long Island’s core pine barrens to the west of East Hampton Town, including in Southampton and Brookhaven Towns, have been “pretty severely affected” by the southern pine beetles, said Mr. Drake. There was a small previous infestation in East Hampton, of about 10 trees also off Swamp Road, but it “fizzled out,” he said.

The small beetles tunnel under the bark of all kinds of pines, as well as hemlocks and spruce in heavily infested areas. Hardwood trees are not affected. The tunneling blocks nutrients to the tree and can cause trees to die in two to four months. 

Native to the southeastern United States, the beetle has been expanding its range, as a result, it is believed, of warming winter temperatures, and was first found in New York three years ago in other areas of Suffolk County. 

According to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, the beetle “can persist for years at very low numbers, sometimes going unnoticed.” Depending on conditions — natural enemies, changes in climate, types of fungus present, and the health and density of pine stands — southern pine beetle populations can explode, causing widespread tree mortality.

Signs of an infestation include pitch tubes, or clumps of resin present on the exterior of the bark, shotgun-patterned holes in the bark and S-shaped tunnels beneath it, and dead pines with reddish-brown needles.

Stands of dead trees are clearly evident in aerial photographs; a D.E.C. photo sent to East Hampton Town alerted the Department of Land Management to the beetle infestation here, and about two weeks ago staffers walked and flagged the affected property, Mr. Drake said. 

The most cost-effective way to manage an infestation, he said, is to cut down affected trees and split them open, exposing overwintering beetles to predators and the winter cold. 

The work should be done before spring, when beetles exit their host trees and look for new hosts. A cycle of egg-laying beneath tree bark, hatching, and vacating trees to infest new hosts can take place three times during a season, Mr. Drake said.

The estimated cost to take care of the affected area is $80,000. Up to $75,000 in New York State grant money is available for southern pine beetle management, and Mr. Drake is preparing an application to be submitted next week. 

If approved, it would authorize work to commence after Jan. 19, 2018. The town would have to contribute $16,000 to the cost. 

Supervisor Larry Cantwell and Town Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc both questioned Mr. Drake about whether more immediate action is warranted to contain the pine beetles’ spread. The environmental analyst will keep tabs on the situation and advise them.

“We’re lucky in the fact that it hasn’t actually crossed Swamp Road,” said Mr. Drake on Tuesday. One tree on the south side of the road was found to have southern pine beetles, but was taken down by the Highway Department and chipped. “Hopefully it’s contained until we can manage it,” said Mr. Drake. 

There is good news regarding another threat to East Hampton’s trees, this time the oaks. The D.E.C. had issued warnings about oak wilt disease, a fungus spread by beetles and through tree roots underground, and instituted a quarantine surrounding Suffolk barring the transport of wood after 15 trees were found in New York with the infectious disease, including one in Southold and another in Wading River. However, recent surveys found no new infected trees on Long Island this year.

When Gary Ireland first got word on Wednesday that the Boy Scouts of America's board of directors unanimously voted to allow girls, he immediately called his 16-year-old daughter, who was heading to lunch at the Maine Coast Semester, an environmentally focused school for high school juniors.

Sydney Ireland, a part-time resident of Bridgehampton who has spent the past four years publicly advocating that girls be admitted as full members of the Boy Scouts, was ecstatic.

She and her family have dedicated much of their time to communicating with various groups, the National Organization for Women in particular, to get resolutions passed, and two years ago Sydney and her brother, Bryan, who is an Eagle Scout (the highest honor that a Boy Scout can attain), got more than 9,000 people to sign an online petition that asked the Boy Scouts of America to adjust the organization's charter to become coed. Still, this week's news came as a surprise.

"We've been working pretty hard at this, and when we first started we were pretty much told it would never happen," Mr. Ireland, an attorney, said by telephone. "There have been times when it looked less likely, but Sydney is a passionate person, and we were certainly playing to win, but we tried to keep our expectations in check."

Although Sydney first got involved in scouting at 4 years old as an unofficial Cub Scout, one day on a camping trip with the junior branch of the Boy Scouts, she realized the extent to which girls were not accepted in the organization.

"She was 10, and a boy came up to her and pretty much said, 'What are you doing here,' " Mr. Ireland said.

Because of the organization's 1916 charter, which admitted only boys, Sydney was never allowed to officially join, but nevertheless she tagged along with Bryan, wearing the same uniform, earning —though informally — the Arrow of Light, the Cub Scouts' highest award, and camping among Boy Scouts.

But when the organization halted her participation as a Cub Scout, Sydney sought out coed scouting troops. She briefly joined one in South Africa before becoming a member of Scouts Canada, Troop 80, in London, Ontario. Although Sydney found many coed troops — something Mr. Ireland said is common in many places other than America — only the Boy Scouts offer the path to earn the prestigious rank of Eagle Scout.

As a result, Sydney has attended various conferences to highlight the need for girls to be allowed into the Boy Scouts so they can earn the rank of Eagle Scout, which she hopes to soon attain. Although she has been an unofficial member of Boy Scout Troop 414 in New York City, her prospects for becoming an official member are looking bright.

For Sydney, the outdoor experiences and the leadership training are what set the Boy Scouts apart from other organizations, and while the program for girls is not expected to begin until 2019, Sydney has already submitted her application -- in fact, she submitted it in May, her father said.

"She has a lot of work in front of her provided she is given the time to complete everything and that they count what she has already done, but she has it all documented," Mr. Ireland said.

Private well testing by state and county health officials will be expanded in an area surrounding East Hampton Airport, where perfluorinated chemicals, or PFCs, that have been tied to a variety of health issues were found in drinking water at one residence as of last week. The free water testing will be offered to three times more properties than had been targeted at first.

Thirty-one residents of the area contacted East Hampton Town Hall after an announcement last week. The town is providing them with deliveries of bottled water, Supervisor Larry Cantwell said Tuesday. The testing zone stretches from the airport on the north to Town Line and Daniel's Hole Road on the west and east, and dips just south of Montauk Highway at its other edge. Anyone within the zone who drinks from a private well may request bottled water, regardless of whether their water has yet been tested.

The water quality examination stems from pollution incidents in other areas of Long Island -- including in Westhampton Beach near the Air National Guard base at Gabreski Airport, and in Yaphank near a county fire training facility -- which were linked to the use of firefighting foam. The foam contains two PFC compounds -- perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) -- which were found in drinking water and are considered harmful to human health. A survey of sites where firefighting foam had been used led health officials to the East Hampton Airport. The chemicals are also used in the aerospace, automotive, construction, and electronic industries.

An initial letter from the Suffolk County Health Department offering free testing of well water to residents within the zone of concern did not mention possible contamination. After receiving a limited response to that letter, the Health Department has sent out a second missive informing residents of the potential for chemical contamination and again offering free water tests.

"People are anxious to determine what may or may not have happened here," Mr. Cantwell said at a town board meeting on Tuesday. "The first step is to get the tests done as soon as possible," he said, so that property owners will know if their water is safe to drink.

In addition to sending letters, the county has sent people to knock on doors in the area, Mr. Cantwell said. "But I think they need to move more quickly."

There are almost 400 properties within the boundaries of the area of concern in Wainscott, which was delineated based on groundwater flow, the supervisor said Tuesday.

While the Health Department had initially planned to test 91 wells within the zone, he said he had pressed county officials during a phone call early this week to expand the number of wells to be tested. Approximately 269 will now be eligible. The supervisor said he had urged the Health Department "to move more expeditiously."

Information has been compiled regarding how many properties within the testing area actually rely on private wells, or are hooked up to public water mains. "A large percentage of people are not on public water," Mr. Cantwell said.

Water test results will provide "a better idea of the extent of the problem," he said, and allow officials to evaluate how to move forward. The extension of public water mains in the area, to get people off their private wells, could be discussed.

The Suffolk County Water Authority, which provides the "public" water to those hooked up to its mains, has not detected any PFCs in its East Hampton water supplies, several of the authority's water testing lab supervisors said on Tuesday. The authority has no wells south of the airport; the closest is on Town Line Road. "We don't have any contamination," the laboratory heads said. Water testing is normally done biannually.

Perfluorinated chemicals are "very persistent" in groundwater, the water experts said, and do not dissipate on their own. However, treating water with a system using granulated activated carbon is successful at removing them.

The final piece of the puzzle, after insuring that residents have water that is safe to drink, will be examining information as to possible sources of the perfluorinated chemicals, Mr. Cantwell said.

East Hampton Town established a firefighters' training facility on land adjacent to the airport, which is rented to the regional Fire Training Association. Six South Fork fire districts offer training for their volunteers there, and the facility is run by a board with representatives from all six districts.

However, "there is no burning going on at that facility," and no use of firefighting foam, said Dan Shields, a member of the Amagansett Fire Department and the chairman of the fire training board. "Most of our training takes place indoors," Mr. Shields said yesterday. Inside the building is a facsimile of a house interior, where volunteer firefighters practice rescues, making their way through smoke, and similar exercises. Outdoors, said Mr. Shields, they practice extricating accident victims from cars. There is "no foam, no water, no anything going on," he said by phone on Tuesday afternoon.

It is unclear whether the foam has ever been used to fight actual fires at the airport or in the area. Aside from one training exercise near a runway about a decade ago, when it might have been used, "they've never used it on an aircraft fire here that I know of," Jim Brundige, the airport manager, said Tuesday. "My office doesn't use or store any chemicals here," Mr. Brundige said.

Residents of Yaphank this week filed a class action lawsuit against five manufacturers of firefighting foams that contain the chemicals PFOS and PFOA, alleging that, through exposure to them in groundwater, they are now at increased risk of health effects, including on the liver and immune systems, and kidney and other cancers. Westhampton Beach residents have sued the county and state. Both the county Firematics Training Facility and the Gabreski Airport location have been declared Superfund Sites.

Last month, it was announced that PFCs were detected in two Hampton Bays Water District public supply wells that are no longer in use. The water district has proposed to install carbon filtration systems at all 11 of its wells, and New York State Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo recently announced an estimated $720,000 state grant toward the $1.2 million project.

Sean P. Ludwick, 45, was sentenced Wednesday to three to nine years in state prison after pleading guilty in August to aggravated vehicular homicide in the death of Paul Hansen of Noyac in August 2015.

Before New York Supreme Court Justice Fernando Camacho pronounced sentence on Wednesday, he heard from Mr. Hansen's brother, Robert Hansen, wife, Catherine Hansen, and twin sister, Susan Hansen Morrisey.

"How many lives have you affected with your cowardly, selfish behavior?" Robert Hansen asked Mr. Ludwick from the jury box, where many family members were seated in the overflowing courtroom.

Paul Hansen was 53 years old when, after a night of drinking, he was getting a ride home with Mr. Ludwick. Mr. Ludwick was speeding down the cul de sac where Mr. Hansen lived, police said, and lost control of the 2013 Porsche he was driving, crashing into a utility pole about 100 feet from his passenger's house. Mr. Ludwick then tried to escape, leaving Mr. Hansen's body on the side of the road. The wrecked car made it only a couple of hundred yards.

"You are a coward. You don't have a compassionate bone in your body," Ms. Hansen said to Mr. Ludwick, who stood handcuffed, wearing a dark suit. "You showed no concern for anybody but yourself," Ms. Hansen continued, holding back tears as she spoke. She reminded Mr. Ludwick that, contrary to media reports, the two men had known each other for less than two days before the accident.

Mr. Ludwick's son, a friend of Mr. Hansen's sons, was sleeping over at the house the morning of the accident. "Even your own son was of no concern to you," Ms. Hansen said, adding that it was members of the Hansen family who shielded Mr. Ludwick's son "and kept him from the ugliness of that morning."

Besides pleading guilty to the homicide charge, Mr. Ludwick also pleaded guilty in August to leaving the scene of a fatal accident, a felony, and aggravated drunken driving as a misdemeanor.

Blood was drawn from Mr. Ludwick four hours after his arrest, under a court issued warrant. The result of that test was a reading of .18 of 1 percent, well over the .08 reading that defines intoxication and high enough to trigger both the vehicular homicide charge and well as the aggravated drunken driving charge. He will serve the sentences for the other two crimes, a one-to-three-year-sentence for the felony, and a year sentence for the misdemeanor, concurrently with the sentence on the top charge.

The two men both worked in real estate, though at different levels. Mr. Hansen was a real estate sales person in Sag Harbor for Douglas Elliman, as well as being a contractor. Mr. Ludwick was a Manhattan real estate developer who founded BlackHouse Development. Mr. Hansen's family owned the house on Rolling Hills Court East in Noyac, while Mr. Ludwick owns a house in Bridgehampton and an apartment on Sutton Place in Manhattan. The nexus between the two men was Mr. Ludwick's son's friendship with Mr. Hansen's sons.

Just before Justice Camacho rendered his sentence, Mr. Ludwick spoke. "I do take responsibility for this." Mr. Ludwick said. "I offer you my humblest apologies."

"I hope you mean it. I truly, truly hope you mean it," Justice Camacho said. He looked at Mr. Hansen's two sons, Austin and Hunter Hansen, also seated in the jury box. "Boys. Your father was a great man."

Mr. Ludwick had a history of erratic behavior before the accident. He was arrested at one point by New York Police Department officers in early 2014, accused of breaking into an ex-girlfriend's Tribeca apartment, then using paint to draw obscene graffiti. In March 2015, he was arrested in Martha's Vineyard after a domestic dispute with a girlfriend in a hotel room.

Ray Varuelo, the prosecuting attorney, told the court before sentencing that Mr. Ludwick had dragged Mr. Hansen's body from the wrecked car. He said that Mr. Hansen's blood alcohol percentage was .25 at time of death, and that Mr. Ludwick's was at least that high at the time of the accident.

One question only Mr. Ludwick can answer is whether Mr. Hansen was alive when Mr. Ludwick attempted to drive off. Statements made to police after his arrest seem to indicate that he believed Mr. Hansen may have been alive.

He has had several lawyers since his arrest. His initial attorney was Daniel J. Ollen. He then retained Benjamin Brafman, a noted New York attorney whose client list reads like a celebrity who's who. That relationship ended after Mr. Ludwick allegedly tried to flee the country in early 2016, shortly after being indicted. He had been out after posting a $1 million bond, and had gone to Puerto Rico, where he took sailing lessons, while scouring the internet for countries that do not have extradition treaties with the United States. He then retained William Keahon, who stood by his side when he pleaded guilty in August, though it was Mr. Ollen at his side for sentencing, with Mr. Keahon seated at the defense table.

Mr. Ludwick will be held in county jail in Yaphank until an upstate facility is designated for him to serve his time in.

He will be eligible to go before the parole board when he completes the first three years of his sentence. However, the impact statements the family made in court, as well as the numerous letters to the court, and the nature of the crimes committed, will all follow Mr. Ludwick any time he applies for parole.

Catherine Hansen is suing Mr. Ludwick on behalf of Mr. Hansen's estate, charging him with the wrongful death of her husband. Mr. Ludwick is scheduled to be deposed tomorrow in jail by Ms. Hansen's lawyer, Scott D. Middleton of Campolo, Middleton & Associates. When he pleaded guilty in August, he was required to admit to committing the crimes he was pleading guilty to, and that statement to Justice Camacho is already part of the court file in the civil action. That action is to be considered in the courtroom of New York Supreme Court Justice William B. Rebolini in Riverside.

The actress Alyssa Milano took to Twitter with a post Sunday night that a friend of a friend had suggested sharing in light of the Harvey Weinstein scandal.

"If you've been sexually harassed or assaulted write 'me too' as a reply to this tweet," Ms. Milano said. By Monday night, more than 55,000 people had declared "me too." Some simply left it at that, while others shared details of rape, sexual assault, or harassment across social media.

The hashtag was tweeted nearly a million times in 48 hours, according to Twitter, with stories or reposts flowing onto Facebook and Instagram. Currently, more than 12 million women — and some men — across the world have raised their hands online to be counted as victims of sexual assault and harassment, highlighting the pervasiveness of the problem.

Among the big names to post a "me too" hashtag were Debra Messing, Anna Paquin, Lady Gaga, Monica Lewinsky, Jennifer Beals, and the Broadway actor Javier Munoz.

But the absolute imbalance of power at the top of Tinsel Town is hardly news. What became news, in this case, was how many women across small towns stepped forward to utter those two words. Suddenly, the issue was small screen, not big screen, ushered from the Oval Office to the cubicle, to Main Street, to the living room, the school, the quad, the community center, the bus stop — places where scores of women have been harassed, or worse. And by whom? No one famous, no one offering women a shot at an Oscar. No powerhungry moguls. Just ordinary men with enough power to silence women.

Around the East End, one of the loudest voices on the "me too" thread belonged to Kate Mueth, the founder of the Neo-Political Cowgirls, a women's dance theater company, a nonprofit organization that aims to create a space for women and girls to process their experiences, concerns, and spirit into dance theater for an audience.

Ms. Mueth's Monday morning post read: "Me too. I'm part of this brutal redundancy. At 18, the guy who raped me stalked me and came up on my porch when he knew I was all alone at night. He wrapped his hands tight around my ballerina neck, put his forehead against mine while staring hard into my eyes, and coldly told me he'd kill me and my family if I told anyone . . . so yeah, let's all shine a light on these grotesque maneuvers and put a hard stop to it asap."

When a few male voices responded with some version of "don't hate me because I'm a man," Ms. Mueth answered angrily, "Geez, women really just can't get a break. Twenty-four hours of 'me too' and already we've got the people putting the brakes on women's rage with 'not all men.' Apparently women can be mad about life-shattering abuses, but we can't be mad for too long."

Ms. Mueth is not alone in believing that sexual predation needs to be addressed by a collective rage, not individual shame. East Hampton Town Councilwoman Kathee Burke-Gonzalez joined the thread and posted a "me too."

"I was struck by the need to show the magnitude of the issue," she said by phone. "When I was 21 and living in Manhattan, unfortunately I was groped on the subway numerous times, and then so many more subtle things that happened in the workplace. I remember my mother sat me down and said, 'It's a man's world.' "

Ms. Burke-Gonzalez admitted, sadly, that even today she needed to have a similar conversation with her 17-year-old daughter because of the paucity of women in high-ranking roles.

"There's just not enough of us in elected office." Barbara Borsack, an East Hampton Village Board member, also expressed her views on Facebook. "This has been a problem forever — men in powerful positions getting away with this disgusting behavior. It will only stop when other men stop allowing it," she wrote.

Encouraging men to take responsibility seems to be growing on social media.

Liz Plank, a journalist and executive producer of the show "Divided States of Women" at Vox Media, recently wrote on Twitter, "It's actually a man's issue," and started trending the hashtag "HimThough," adding, "Why is the burden always on women? I'm done pretending sexual assault is a woman's issue. Your shame is not ours. No sir. #HimThough."

At the Retreat, an East Hampton organization that provides services to victims of domestic violence and sexual assault on eastern Long Island, the executive director, Loretta Davis, agreed.

While she sees the "me too" movement as a good start, even a revelation, she believes that it is simply not enough. "We need a cultural shift. We need to redefine strength and what it means to be a man or perhaps a partner. Strength means respect." As such, the Retreat offers prevention education programs that include a Fatherhood Initiative, in which young men learn parenting and partnership skills.

Nicole Behrens, a former board president at the Retreat who has experienced such abuse, echoes the growing sentiment that perpetrators need to be held accountable. "Men need to stand up and shout 'No more!' " she wrote in an email. "The world suffers, not because of the violence of bad people, but because of the silence of good ones."

Observing the "me too" fire ignite with a keen professional eye is Mary Bromley, a psychotherapist with a private practice in East Hampton. Ms. Bromley, who has practiced for more than 30 years, specializes in working with adults and teenagers — boys and girls — who are victims of sexual assault.

She said that she is unable to recall a movement that has helped unify women against all aspects of sexual humiliation and misconduct such as this one. She believes one of the reasons "me too" went viral with such dispatch is that virtually every woman has experienced it in some form.

"This is a rare opportunity to shine a light on sexual trauma," she said. "Social media, for all of its negatives, is also a vehicle for people to feel connected and less alone. 'Me too' is including the 'lower level' trauma of everyday life that most of us took for granted. Groping on the subway, indecent exposure, catcalling, inappropriate and confusing sexual innuendos, men masturbating on the subway or bus.

These shared stories will empower girls to speak out loudly." In fact, Ms. Milano has been erroneously credited as the originator of "me too." Tarana Burke, an African-American activist, began the crusade in 1996, particularly for women of color. Today Ms. Burke is the program director for Girls for Gender Equity in Brooklyn and the founder of the Me Too movement, started as a grassroots effort to aid sexual assault survivors in underprivileged communities, she said in an interview with Ebony magazine.

"It wasn't built to be a viral campaign or a hashtag that is here today and forgotten tomorrow," she said.

Whether or not the hashtag will slip away from the collective cultural consciousness remains to be seen. For now, it has given women an opportunity to move out of shame and into anger. And for the world to witness the ubiquity of the problem.

Harvey, Irma, Jose, Lee, Maria, Nate: Six meteorological assaults since August have brought death and destruction through parts of the United States, the territories of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, as well as other parts of the Caribbean, and, more recently, Central America.

The East End was largely unscathed when much of the Island was battered by Hurricane Sandy in 2012, but residents here, aware of the devastation in the western part of the Island, mobilized to help those in need. They are coming together now under East End Cares, which is helping Hurricane Harvey victims. Also engaged in helping those in need, four-legged friends and all, are the Animal Rescue fund of the Hamptons and State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr.

East End Cares was born after Hurricane Sandy when Melissa Berman, a Montauk resident, rallied volunteers. The organization has recently teamed up with Team Rubicon, a nationwide non-government organization that unites military veterans with first responders for rapid emergency action. Through its fund-raising efforts, East End Cares has sent volunteers such as Amanda Bickerstaff, one of its founders, Jon Schoen of Sag Harbor, and Maureen Rutkowski to help on the ground in Texas.

In an email to The Star, Ms. Rutkowski wrote, “I just returned from a week in Beaumont, Tex., mucking out houses with Team Rubicon. . . . I was on a humanitarian mission, expecting long days, hard work, and high emotions. Yes, I experienced all of those, and so much more. I made lifelong friendships, learned new perspectives, cried a bit; laughed a ton, and gained a newfound appreciation for how people with a broad range of backgrounds, beliefs, and life experiences can join together to get a whole lot done.”

To continue providing help wherever and whenever, East End Cares will hold a fun-for-all Oktoberfest fund-raiser on Sunday at Solé East restaurant in Montauk from 5 to 8 p.m. The event will feature music, raffles, a silent auction, s’mores, pumpkin crafts for kids, beer, snacks, hot cider, and more. Advance tickets are $20 for adults ($25 at the door) and $10 for kids. Solé East is at 90 Second House Road, Montauk. All proceeds will benefit U.S. and Caribbean disaster response efforts by Team Rubicon.

Meanwhile, the Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons has not forgotten about the hundreds of animals who need help. The organization has rescued 105 dogs and cats from shelters in Texas and Florida impacted by the hurricanes. And, last week, ARF learned that its longstanding partner, Barks of Hope, in Rincon, Puerto Rico, had no electricity, water, or gas. 

“Aid for the 45 animals in its shelter was nowhere in sight‚“ Scott Howe, ARF’s executive director and chief executive officer, said. In response, two staffers, Michele Forrester, the director of operations, and her husband, Jamie, an ARF driver, got on a commercial flight on Monday into Aguadilla, the closest airport to Barks of Hope in Rincon.

 The couple, Mr. Howe said, arrived in Rincon to prepare dogs for a flight to Westhampton yesterday. ARF chartered a cargo flight that left Georgia in the early morning yesterday to pick up the dogs and volunteers in Aguadilla at around 9 a.m., he said. The flight arrived at Gabreski Airport in Westhampton Beach at around 1 p.m.

“Never did we imagine the need would be so great and so urgent within such a short amount of time. This work would not be possible without adopters and donors, and we need both,” Mr. Howe said. Donations to ARF can be made at arfhamptons.org

New York State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. is spearheading a food drive to help Puerto Rico recover from the devastating effects of Hurricane Maria in partnership with Long Island Cares and New York State. Millions of residents in the territory have been left without power, limited running water, and no access to fuel. 

Assemblyman Thiele has asked for donations of non-perishable foods and cleaning supplies — garbage bags and latex gloves, shampoo and soap, feminine hygiene products, toothbrushes and toothpaste, and toilet paper, among them. Flashlights, batteries, and mosquito repellent are also in great need.

Items can be placed in a food-drive box at the assemblyman’s office, Suite A, 2302 Main Street, Bridgehampton. The assemblyman’s office said that all donated goods would be delivered to Long Island Cares where volunteers will organize, pack and send everything to a central donation center at the New York State Office Building in Hauppauge, from where it will be shipped to Puerto Rico. Alternatively, people can also participate in an online drive by visiting: You­GiveGoods at yougivegoods.com/thiele, where the most needed items to date are indicated. 

Long Island Cares is one of the region’s most comprehensive hunger assistance organizations, serving thousands of individuals and families with nutritional food and support services through a network of more than 580 community-based agencies, including food pantries, soup kitchens, emergency shelters, child care programs, disability organizations, and veterans’ services, among others.

It has been a bad 10 days for dolphins on the South Fork. Two that washed ashore within two days on the ocean beaches in Napeague and Amagansett last week appear to have died after becoming entangled in fishing nets, according to officials, and another found struggling but alive in Three Mile Harbor early last week was later euthanized. A fourth washed up dead in East Hampton Village.

Workers at the East Hampton Marina spotted the dolphin in Three Mile Harbor at around 10 a.m. on Oct. 3. “One of our employees saw him swimming in the back making circles. He didn’t look good,” said William Plitt. The Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation responded in an attempt to rescue it.

Chuck Bowman, the president of the foundation, said it was an offshore bottlenose dolphin — nearly 10 feet long. “It really shouldn’t have been there. Sometimes we’ll get smaller ones inshore,” he said, but one this big should never have made its way to the harbor. “It’s unusual,” Mr. Bowman said. “It usually means it’s compromised, disoriented, or sick.”

Using a sling-like contraption, the foundation’s team attempted to carry the dolphin back into deeper waters but it was too weak to float. It kept beaching itself, Mr. Bowman said. After several tries it became clear to rescuers that the dolphin needed to be taken out of the water. It was moved into a rescue van for transport. In the end, “the only real way to handle it was to have it euthanized,” Mr Bowman said.

A necropsy — usually done with tissue and blood samples — was performed on the dolphin. Results were pending, he said.

Then over the weekend, the Atlantic Marine Conservation Society performed necropsies on two deceased bottlenose dolphins that had washed ashore not far from each other in Amagansett. The first was reported on Friday afternoon around 2 p.m. at the end of Atlantic Avenue Beach, and the second was found Saturday morning at about 7 on the beach at Napeague Lane. Beachgoers discovered the dolphins, and the East Hampton Marine Patrol unit assisted. 

A team of society biologists and volunteers took the dolphin bodies to the East Hampton Recycling Center on Saturday. They performed the necropsies between 1 and 5:30 p.m., sending samples to a pathologist. The remains were disposed of at the recycling center. 

Both were female and sexually immature, between 5 and 13 years old, according to Rachel Bosworth, a spokes woman for the Atlantic Marine Conservation Society. The dolphin at Atlantic Avenue measured 6.9 feet long and weighed 300 pounds. The other dolphin was 6.3 feet and weighed 250 pounds. They both had lacerations on their skin “consistent with entanglement,” Ms. Bosworth said in a statement yesterday. “Line impressions on the right lateral tail stock of the smaller dolphin appear consistent with roping or line associated with netting.” The cases are being investigated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of Law Enforcement. “At this time, it is too early to determine the actual cause of death as the investigation is ongoing,” she said. 

“Necropsies are an important research effort that allows us to better understand different marine mammal and sea turtle species,” said Rob DiGiovanni, the chief scientist with the conservation society. “Without understanding why animals are washing up dead we cannot make informed decisions on our impacts. For these necropsies, we believe they may be an offshore species considering the size of these bottlenose dolphins that washed up in relation to their age, as well as their body condition being free of marks commonly found on inshore dolphins.”

On Tuesday morning, a heavily-decayed dolphin carcass was found just west of the Main Beach pavilion in East Hampton Village. A responding police officer suspected it may have been the same one that had been discovered at Egypt Beach on Saturday. Beachgoers had dragged that dolphin back into the water before biologists were able to respond. 

Dolphins are protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Under federal law, the public must stay a minimum of 50 yards away from them. Interaction can cause harm to people and the dolphins. Marine mammal sightings and strandings can be reported by calling 631-369-9829. Information can also be found at amseas.org/report-a-sighting/.

Both the Riverhead Foundation and Atlantic Marine Conservation Society receive calls about strandings, with the foundation responding for live marine mammals and the conservation society responding for those that are deceased, according to Mr. Bowman. Both have different types of stranding agreements with NOAA. The A.M.C.S. also has a stranding agreement for large live whales and the Riverhead Foundation has the stranding agreement for live small whales, dolphins, seals, among others.

So far in 2017, the society has responded to reports of 109 marine mammals and sea turtles in New York State, Mr. DiGiovanni said.

Two dead bottlenose dolphins were also found in Southampton in early August. 

With four dolphins found dead or dying on East Hampton shores in just over a week, is there cause for concern? According to Mr. Bowman, no. He attributes the numbers to the fact that there were so many dolphins in the area this summer. Dolphins and whales came closer to shore to feed on menhaden. “I’ve never seen anything like it. There were acres of it,” Mr. Bowman said of the small fish, also called bunker. 

“If you’re going to have more animals, you’re going to have more dead animals. They do get sick, injured, die of old age. Everything has a life span,” he said. 

“Mortality events usually take place over a larger area. If there had been lots of dolphins washing up down in Maryland and then moving north,” he said, that would be another story. “This is not that unusual.”

In July, the Atlantic Marine Conservation Society completed its first marine mammal survey of the season offshore near the Shinnecock Inlet. It reported nine bottlenose dolphins were feeding in the area. The organization also collected 6.92 pounds of marine debris floating in the water, including 26 balloons. Marine debris is one of the leading causes of marine animal injuries and deaths.

With Reporting by Jackie Pape

The East Hampton Village Board took a long look into the future at its work session last Thursday, with agenda items that included affordable housing, accessory structures, and a dramatic re-imagining of the village as presented by two architects.

Maziar Behrooz and Bruce Engel, East Hampton architects, presented what they have previously called a “guerrilla plan” that they say would address environmental, transportation, and housing deficiencies while connecting existing and new hubs of activity, restoring the pedestrian and bicycle-friendly village of years past. The architects presented their “Vision for the Village of East Hampton” before an audience at the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill on Aug. 31, and in a follow-up article in The Star, Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. called the plan “thought provoking and stimulating,” and suggested its authors present it at a work session. 

Because the village had not commissioned them to create their vision, “it gave us opportunity to think freely and openly,” Mr. Behrooz told the board. But, he added, “We need feedback from you all, who know this town far better than we do. Should you feel that this is worth pursuing, we would be happy to be part of a committee . . . and see where it can go.” 

After their presentation to the board, the mayor said that in conjunction with the town, the village had purchased property contiguous with Herrick Park. “That’s very important because it’s an extension of our green space,” in harmony with the architects’ plan. The board is aligned with the town in efforts to mitigate deteriorated water quality in its ponds, and both municipalities are considering wastewater management. “What you’ve offered us this morning gives us additional food for thought,” he said. “At least let this be a beginning of the dialogue.” 

“We have to look into doing something,” said Bruce Siska, the deputy mayor, “because of the core center and all the cesspools and sewer systems in the Reutershan parking lot and the Schenck parking lot. We’re going to have to do something, and we’re looking at having more available housing in the core community, which is going to put a strain on the sewer system.” 

Discussions of affordable housing and the use of accessory structures followed the presentation. Bill Chaleff, an architect who assisted Mr. Behrooz and Mr. Engel in their plan, said that “two-thirds of all the housing stock on the South Fork are second homes, and the year-round community is overwhelmed by this.” That figure, he said, is “very rapidly moving toward three-quarters.” 

Barbara Borsack said that the presentation coincided with her thinking about the commercial district’s future. Retail stores across the country are dying, she said, victims to online shopping. “It occurred to me that we do have to consider wastewater treatment,” she said. “In order to open Main Street and Newtown Lane to the possibility of more restaurants, which is one way to keep our village vibrant . . . we need to talk about wastewater.” Some kind of treatment facility will be necessary. That, she said, “would also enable us to encourage affordable housing over the businesses on Main Street and Newtown Lane, because septic is also an issue there. We’ve had a number of what were apartments become office space. It would be nice if we could get them to revert to some kind of affordable housing.”

Billy Hajek, the village planner, agreed that sewage flow is paramount in the complex issue of additional housing. “Right now, in a very soft way, the code does encourage apartments above commercial buildings,” he said, as does the village’s comprehensive plan. Concrete incentives that lead to action, however, are “the heavy lift that will require some study, investigative work as to how best to do it.” 

The board could define affordable housing and work-force housing based on median income, Mr. Hajek said, and determine eligibility based on being a member of the fire department or employed by the school district, for example. “If you create the law you could craft it however you like.”

“I would like to see us have a committee work on it,” Ms. Borsack said. The mayor asked her and Arthur Graham, another board member, to study the issues. 

In a separate matter, Ken Collum, the village’s building inspector, told the board of his department’s concerns. According to code, a property owner need not have a swimming pool in order to have a pool house. These accessory structures can be up to 250 square feet and include a half-bathroom. “We do have a few in the village that, they’ll call it a library or something,” he said. “If the village’s intent is to allow that, that’s fine, we just need clarification in the definition of pool houses. It sometimes causes issues with these morphing into other things,” such as habitable space. He suggested changing the code to require a property to have a swimming pool if it has a pool house. 

That discussion segued into another: “the carving out of 250 square feet of an existing or new building” that is labeled a pool house, Mr. Collum said. “Time and time again before the zoning board of appeals, we see these are becoming rec rooms, they’re becoming gyms, they’re becoming anything but a garage.” Past consideration of requiring a pool house to be a stand-alone structure has not been acted upon, he said. “We talk about this every year, it sits there, and we don’t really do anything about it.” 

Further, Mr. Collum said, property owners are building garages and other detached structures that feature full basements in which mechanical devices for the residence, such as heating and plumbing equipment, are situated. Instead of being in the basement of the residence, they are connected to the residence via tunnel or other conduit, he said. 

Basements in accessory structures are not counted in floor-area calculations. “These homes are basically investments,” he said. “These properties are worth a lot of money. We develop them, and we don’t charge them for [floor area] in that basement. So if you have 10,000 square feet above ground and a 5,000-square-foot basement, now you have a 15,000-square-foot home.” 

The Village of Southampton prohibits basements under accessory structures, he said. “I’m not sure the board wants to go that way, but we’re looking for guidance in our department,” he said. Mr. Siska said that the village’s planning and zoning committee, which he chairs, would examine the issues Mr. Collum raised.