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11 P.M. STORM UPDATE
Menendez, LoBiondo, Whelan call on Corzine to declare emergency
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Federal legislators said Monday they will ask Gov. Jon S. Corzine to declare a state of emergency for southern New Jersey shore municipalities whose beaches and shore protection were heavily damaged during this week's coastal storm.
The legislators said the declaration - which will hopefully follow a tour of the area by Corzine - could open the way for money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, to help pay for shorefront repairs.
FEMA money could arrive more quickly, and in greater amounts, than funds appropriated through the normal federal legislative channels, said U.S. Rep. Frank LoBiondo, R-2nd.
City Emergency Management Director Tom Foley said the resort estimates this week's storm has washed away $4 million in sand and caused the same amount of private property damage - to things such as vehicles and homes - thus far. More damage assessments must still be done, he said.
Officials with Corzine's office weren't immediately available for comment.
LoBiondo and U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., said they would call Corzine during a press conference at the Atlantic City Convention Center to announced $17.6 million in beach replenishment and flood mitigation projects for Ocean, Atlantic and Cape May counties.
They held their news conference on the convention center's fourth floor, where wind-driven rain beat against floor-to-ceiling windows, through which pounding surf could be seen rolling onto the beach blocks away.
"The storm that is hitting us now has the potential to cause damage to homes and businesses, infrastructure and even lives," Menendez said. "It is not the first storm packing a punch to come through this area, and it won't be the last. When faced with forces of nature like this, we think about how best to protect our families, our property and the shore, which sustains this community and our entire state economically."
That coastal storm continues to pound southern New Jersey today, bringing a strong wind that is preventing ocean and bay water that had built up from a succession of high tides from draining.
The winds and waves are also causing severe beach erosion along the New Jersey shore. Many streets are flooded in Cape May County, which is under a local state of emergency. Although officials suggested voluntary evacuations of low-lying areas late Thursday, there have been no mandatory-evacuation orders.
The National Weather Service's forecast for today calls for northeast winds of 25 to 35 mph, with gusts up to 50 mph. Rain is expected to continue throughout the day and into the night. Tonight, northeast winds are expected at 20 to 30 mph, with gusts up to 45 mph.
A high surf advisory is in effect until 10 a.m. Saturday, with seas running 11 to 16 feet and subsiding to 9 to 14 feet after midnight. A coastal flood watch is in effect until 10 a.m. Saturday.
WHAT'S NEW SINCE LAST UPDATE:
_ In Cape May County, Route 47 in Wildwood re-opened at about 10:30 p.m. Friday night.
ATLANTIC COUNTY
Ventnor police report that the Dorset Avenue bridge and Wellington Avenue are expected to be closed between 5 and 7 p.m. as high tide returns.
On the beach in the area of New Haven Avenue in Ventnor, dunes that were there yesterday are now gone. The dunes had stood 10-15 feet high.
At 10:40 a.m., Atlantic Avenue in Longport, between 13th and 18th streets, continued to see flooding of about 2 feet. Workers were trying to unclog street drains, which had become jammed with dune grass and other beach debris.
Traffic on the Atlantic City Expressway heading into the resort was backed up for more than a mile early today. Routes 30 and 40 into town were closed, and commuters who normally would take those roads were clogging the Expressway.
The flood conditions caused Atlantic County officials to declare an elevated weather emergency Friday.
Atlantic and Pacific Avenues in Atlantic City were clear of flooding, along with most beach-side streets on Absecon Island. But drive through back bay streets in Margate and Longport, and you're liable to see your car stall in the standing water.
Ocean's waves were seen crashing over the end of Central Pier at Tennessee Avenue, and the nearby Boardwalk was quiet and devoid of people. One couple, however, was out jogging through the rain. George and Mary Earnhardt, of York, Pa., say they had planned their trip to Atlantic City for some time and weren't postponing it. "It's a little wet," George Earnhardt said, "but I'm paying a lot of money to be wet."
In the Inlet section of Atlantic City, parts of the Boardwalk were smashed, with boards and rocks littering the street. Road crews were working on inoperative traffic lights.
In the Downbeach towns of Ventnor, Margate and Longport in Atlantic County, street flooding was diminishing, but only Atlantic Avenue was completely without standing water.
The Black Horse Pike was re-opened in Atlantic City on Friday night shortly before 9 p.m. The pike remained closed in Pleasantville.
The eastbound lane of the White Horse Pike between Absecon and Atlantic City was flooded in the afternoon but open again at about 8 p.m. The westbound remained closed due to flooding, county Emergency Management Director Michael Schurman said.
About a dozen people had to be rescued from their vehicles after they drove into several feet of water in the afternoon on routes 30 and 9 in Absecon, Schurman said. Drivers are reminded not to drive into pools of water.
“The back bays are full, that’s the problem,” Schurman said.
The Route 52 bridge and causeway between Ocean City and Somers Point were also closed.
A pole was downed in the eastbound lanes of the Atlantic City Expressway west of Exit 12, and a tree fell on the Garden State Parkway just north of the New Gretna toll plaza, the state Department of Transportation reported. Both were quickly cleared away.
CAPE MAY COUNTY
The Prosecutor's Office is investigating the death of a man found on 18th Street and New York Avenue in North Wildwood on Thursday night. Cape May County Prosecutor Robert Taylor said the death appears to have been accidental. The cause and manner of death have not yet been determined, he said. The Southern Regional Medical Examiner's Office will conduct an autopsy on Monday to determine the cause.
The company PKF Mark III of Newtown, Pa. was repairing the Townsends Inlet Bridge before the barge broke from its moorings in rough weather and deep water on Wednesday — and again on Thursday.
Facing a four-hour window to secure the barge or risk it ramming the span that connects Avalon to Sea Isle City, PKF Mark III employees tied the barge to a bridge pier and anchored it in a way that the barge beaches itself against the sandy inlet banks, said Stephen O'Connor, executive director of the bridge commission.
At one point, officials even considered intentionally sinking the barge to prevent a crash, O'Connor said.
The company did not return calls seeking comment.
O'Connor said their efforts thwarted a potentially disastrous situation.
The bridge remains closed indefinitely until engineers can assess damage from when the barge struck the bridge earlier in the week, although O'Connor said most damage appears contained to the rail and sidewalk and not the support structure.
Cape May County Communications Officer Lenora Boninfante said communities in Avalon, North Wildwood and Lower Township set up emergency shelters, and other shelters were coordinated through the American Red Cross.
North Wildwood Mayor Bill Henfey said the city's ongoing beach replenishment project took "a pretty good hit" in areas from Second to Fourth streets. The city expects to assess the damage Saturday.
The George Redding Bridge into Wildwood is now open with one lane in and out of the island.
Officials report that the 34th Street bridge has reopened.
Atlantic City Electric's Web site reports that high winds and heavy rains are responsible for the loss of power to about 570 homes in the Sea Isle area. Crews are also working on that problem, but power is not expected to be restored until 4 p.m., according to their web site. The utility company's power outage map indicates it is dealing numerous other outages, many of them affecting just a handful of customers.
In Ocean City, reports say that the beach between 6th Street and the Music Pier has lost at least 20 feet, and that there's not much beach left north of 6th Street.
Many parts of North Wildwood were impassable with flood waters, including portions of New Jersey Avenue--which is often one of the driest of the city's roads in storms.
Cape May County halted its Meals on Wheels service to the barriers islands because of the storm. All of Cape May County's senior centers are closed as well.
National Guard trucks are stationed in Ocean City, Sea Isle City, Stone Harbor, North Wildwood, West Wildwood and Cape May City, according to the Cape May County Communications Office.
About 1,200 people are without power in the county, the office said this morning.
At the southern end of Sea Isle City, beach erosion was severe. At 88th Street, the ocean chewed into dunes and left sharp cliffs at a beach path. Ocean water spilled onto the path.
At the Townsends Inlet Bridge, which connects Sea Isle City to Avalon, work crews appeared to have anchored a loose barge that had threatened to seriously damage the span this morning.
Company trucks were on the scene keeping an eye on the barge. An employee there declined to comment. The barge had been fixing the bridge as part of a Cape May County Bridge Commission project.
NJTransit was reporting early Friday that its bus service in Cape May and Atlantic counties was experience much disruption due to detours.
In North Wildwood, Susan O'Connor, 40, reports that she was one of several SuperFresh employees that had to be rescued from the store by North Wildwood emergency personnel overnight.
"Some of my co-workers ended up spending the night in the store," said the deli-department worker. O'Connor said her home has been without electricity since 1 p.m. Thursday and that she heating her home with the kitchen's gas oven.
Also in North Wildwood car owners have been seeking high ground on parking lots around town, including a Mcdonald's parking lot that's been closed for the season. Cars are even parked in the drive-thru.
Cape May County Freeholder Vice Director Ralph E. Sheets Jr. and Emergency Management Director Frank McCall signed an emergency proclamation at 6 p.m. Thursday, and asked for state assistance in controlling traffic. The county also asked for 10 high-wheel four-wheel-drive vehicles to respond to medical emergencies and for resources to help Atlantic City Electric cope with power outages.
McCall said that this storm probably would rank among the top five to ever hit the county, and may end up being the costliest in terms of damage to property. Damage assessment will be done Sunday and Monday, with officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency called to the county Monday.
OCEAN COUNTY
The severe flooding in the Tuckerton Beach area is typical for this kind of storm, Tuckerton Mayor Lee Eggert said.
Eggert said he doesn't think conditions are as bad as they were during a storm in 1992 when the borough lost several police cars due to flooding.
He added that the tide had come up pretty high in Tuckerton Beach and with the next high tide, flooding could reach Green Street.
Eggert said some people have left their homes, while others have moved their cars to higher ground and returned to their homes to ride out the storm. No one has been evacuated from the area, he said.
In Beach Haven, police said people are assembling to look at a home on Merivale Avenue where the ocean has eroded the sand beneath.
Authorities are asking the public to stay away from the compromised structure for their own safety. The home stands on pilings and Thursday night during high tide, the front of the home was protruding into the Atlantic Ocean.
Tourists kept pulling over Friday afternoon near Atlantic Avenue and the beach in Harvey Cedars, many to see if the house that appeared to be tottering atop an eroding dune, was going to fall into the ocean.
As of 5 p.m., it had not. And for what it’s worth, owner Ed Walters didn’t think it would.
Walters said the house was built in 1960 and survived the 1962 Storm, so he wasn’t too worried.
“I don’t think there’s any real threat,” said Walters, who was reached by telephone Friday afternoon.
Just the same, Walters, who owns a construction company, said he would be glad when a $25 million beach project started pumping sand on this borough’s small beaches.
Waves were splashing over the dunes into the road near his beachfront home. A line of cars had pulled over and people were standing atop the dunes.
Police had put caution tape around the dunes and periodically and officer would come by and remind the onlookers to be careful.
Terry and AnnMarie Deakyne have owned the home next Walters’ house since 1962. They say this is the thinnest part of the island and they believe the ocean is trying to meet the bay here.
“Well I really can’t stop mother nature,” Terry Dekyne, 43, said.
_Utility lines that connected to the oceanfront home on Merivale Avenue in Beach Haven, also on Long Beach Island, lay completely exposed Friday afternoon.
Small groups of people climbed under yellow police tape to get a closer look at the house in such a precarious position.
As the tide began to rise, water broke through the beach entrance and sent the crowd scattering.
_Paul Ginty, of Riverside, Burlington County, calls himself a stormchaser. Friday he traveled to LBI to see how badly the storm ravaged the beaches where he vacations in Brant Beach.
He wore a T-shirt, but ignored the cold and watched the violent waves in awe.
"I'm cold, but my jacket got soaked. This is incredible," he said as he stood taking photos of the waves crashing against the bulkhead at the end of the island in the Holgate section of Long Beach Township.
The Holgate portion of Edwin B. Forsythe Refuge was closed Thursday and Friday to vehicles.
When high tide receded Friday morning on Long Beach Island, it left piles of shattered wood along the sand, accumulated from dunes battered up and down the island.
Most of Long Beach Boulevard from Ship Bottom and south was flooded after the tides rose above the bulkheads along the bay around 7 a.m.
Orange cones directed motorists to Ocean Avenue off of the main road and other side streets near the bay, where water stood at about a half-foot deep.
The north half of the island remained relatively dry, except for standing water in some areas left by the constant rains.
The mainland side of the bay is also experiencing flooding, with Bayshore Drive in Barnegat Township closed, as well as several roads in the Beach Haven West and Mud City sections of Stafford Township.
The wind also knocked down a tree on the Garden State Parkway around 11 a.m., blocking the right northbound lane just north of the New Gretna Toll Plaza.
Mustache Bill's is open after a small electrical fire briefly closed the diner Friday morning. Workers said a compressor blew, and the smell caused them to close the restaurant and ask the handful of patrons there to leave around 9:45 a.m. The diner paid for all their meals. Fire fighters and police immediately responded, and the store reopened about a half hour later.
The Brant Beach section of Long Beach Township was one of the hardest hit by this storm.
The only protection many oceanfront homes have now is rickety dune fence. The dunes in many areas have been completely washed and eroded away. What is left of the dunes on this stretch of beach look more like sand cliffs.
The area of Long Beach Boulevard near the municipal complex accessway in Brant Beach was under water this morning, leaving motorists no through way.
Farther south on Long Beach Boulevard, the Beach Haven Crest and Beach Haven Park sections of the township looked like small bodies of water.
An oceanfront home on 80th Street was cordoned off Friday morning and a lone beam could be seen anchoring the vulnerable home into the sand.
Joeys' Pizza and Pasta on 81st Street in Beach Haven Crest lived up to its slogan- "occasional waterfront dining". The box-shaped pizza parlor was closed for business, but up to its ovens in saltwater.
Farther south on LBI, in the North Beach Haven section of the township, the Hands Department Store on 14th Street was under water and suffered siding damage to the building.
CUMBERLAND COUNTY
Hardest hit has been the Delaware bayshore communities of Port Norris, Dividing Creek, Fortescue and Maurice River Township — where more than 700 homes are without power. Atlantic City Electric's Web site reports that crew are working on the problem and power should be restored early afternoon.
Posted in Breaking on Friday, November 13, 2009 5:00 am Updated: 10:55 pm.
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