While Jose arrived in Connecticut without the punch people feared, all along the shoreline, businesses and residents still prepared for the worst.
Elsewhere, surfers could be seen out on the water hoping to take advantage of any waves the storm brought.
But at the Old Lyme Beach Club, something most people haven't seen before is planted along the beachfront. Large corrugated pipes are bolted to the ground with anchors parallel to the water. Their inventor hopes the pipes will catch some waves as well.
"As the tide rises and the waves come in, we're going to try and stop them," said Sloane Danenhower.
The Old Lyme resident says his patented "Wave Muffler" will cut 4-foot waves down to just a foot.
"The water comes in, the energy gets absorbed in the pipe, the water comes out the ends of the pipe," said Danenhower. "The cuts in the pipe, what they do is let the water in to fill the pipe up, and if there's extra water it spills out the back."
Danenhower says he came up with the idea following Superstorm Sandy which left a foot of sand on the deck of the Old Lyme Beach Club. For more than three years, Danenhower says he's worked on the Wave Muffler and tested it in labs. He's waiting to test it against the power of an actual hurricane.
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Danenhower says the pipes on the beachfront of the Old Lyme Beach Club can be set up in about four hours and taken down in about three. The goal is to one day see the system deployed before a hurricane to protect property and beach erosion.
“The idea is to be able to scale it up so we could do hundreds, if not thousands, of feet within a day or two of an oncoming catastrophe," said Danenhower.
