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N.J. shore towns calculate loss from coastal storm as officials head to region
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Last week’s devastating coastal storm left $89 million worth of damage in Ocean City alone and an estimated $31 million worth of damage in Long Beach Township on Long Beach Island — the storm’s total bill is still climbing as officials scramble to assess eroded beaches and flooded property.
Federal and state agencies will visit New Jersey’s shore towns today to help determine the extent of the damage. Emergency management officials in the region worked frantically Monday to submit preliminary reports to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which could provide federal funds as relief to municipalities affected by the storm.
Teams visiting today will work first with local and county governments in Atlantic and Cape May counties, according to Nick Morici, spokesman for the state Office of Emergency Management. They eventually will start working all the other counties — Ocean, Cumberland, Burlington and Monmouth — covered in the emergency declaration issued Sunday by Gov. Jon S. Corzine, he said.
Corzine’s declaration is the key to getting President Barack Obama to issue a federal emergency declaration, something that could clear the way for federal funds to be sent to southern New Jersey.
The agencies that will head to the region starting today include the state departments of Environmental Protection and Community Affairs, FEMA and the federal Small Business Administration.
Morici said the teams will remain in each county for as long as it takes to complete the assessment work.
Municipalities in Cape May and Ocean counties are reporting the largest amounts in damage expenses.
Long Beach Township Deputy Police Chief and Emergency Management Coordinator Leslie Houston said the township has suffered about $31 million in damage and cleanup costs along its 12 miles of beaches.
The preliminary total does not include any damage to private homes.
“I’ve sent out a community notification to residents to contact them through e-mail with any structural damage reports,” Houston said.
She said the initial report of $31 million includes debris removal, damage to ramps, dune fencing and posts, cleaning out storm drains and outfall pipes.
“The primary value of the $31 million is the dunes and the protective measures to rebuild those dunes,” she said.
South on Long Beach Island, Beach Haven’s ravaged dunes and pummeled oceanfront homes are reported to have suffered $4.5 million worth of damage, according the Beverly Kochik, borough emergency management coordinator. Merivale Avenue was the hardest-hit area, she said, adding that 30 feet of the street was lost in the storm.
“This is the worst I’ve seen the beaches since I got here in 1995,” she said.
The borough’s assessment includes debris removal and rebuilding the dune along the entire length of Beach Haven’s oceanfront, according to Kochik.
On the northern stretch of LBI, Harvey Cedars, which already had severely eroded beaches, is looking at $5.65 million in damages from the coastal storm, borough officials said.
A $25 million beach-replenishment project was scheduled to begin last week but was delayed as a result of the storm, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
“We could be starting work sometime tomorrow if the offshore buoy (used with the dredge) is intact and survived the storm,” Army Corps spokeswoman Sarah Rivette said.
The Army Corps is currently surveying areas where projects have been completed to see what, if anything, needs to be done to the beach following the storm, she said.
Borough Administrator Rich Bethea said there was not the same kind of damage in Ship Bottom that occurred in Harvey Cedars and Beach Haven.
“The worst were dune cuts around the south end of town and some dune fence was lost. But our dune is thick and wide. Our biggest task has been the cleanup and tapering off of the dunes,” he said.
Despite flooding last week in the Tuckerton Beach section of Tuckerton borough, the small town sustained little damage so far, according to Mayor Lee Eggert.
Harold Spedding, borough emergency management coordinator, said a damage dollar amount had not been submitted to the Ocean County Office of Emergency Management.
“But that could change as the days move on, because many of the people in the low-laying areas are summer residents,” he said.
On Monday, Stafford Township Mayor John McMenamin said no report with damage costs had been submitted to the county.
“We had a lot of flooding with some trees down, but not a lot of damage,” he said.
Cape May County
“Before the storm, we suggested predictably this would be one of the five worst storms in the history of Cape May County. We expect the numbers to reflect that,” Emergency Management Director Frank McCall said.
The storm caused extensive damage to the coastline of Strathmere, Sea Isle City, Avalon, Stone Harbor, the Wildwoods and Cape May, he said.
Sea Isle City conservatively estimated it lost $15 million in beach and dunes; Avalon, an estimated $4 million and Strathmere, $2.5 million.
McCall cautioned that those estimates were subject to change.
“They were done as a windshield survey,” he said.
Even so, Ocean City Emergency Management Director Frank Donato described the financial estimates as “staggering.”
“It was the worst storm we’ve had since 1992. We lost an estimated 7 million cubic yards of beach and dunes,” he said.
Meanwhile, the island’s playing fields and golf course were still underwater Monday, as were many people’s inundated yards across the county. The Townsends Inlet Bridge is expected to reopen Thursday after it was pounded by an unmoored repair barge.
McCall said he intends to impress upon federal and state officials the need to restore the county’s beaches before next summer.
“The response to the recovery will be just as intense as our response to the (storm),” he said. “We just want to make sure Cape May County and its residents are returned to normalcy.”
By coincidence, Ocean City will be meeting today with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to discuss a long-planned beach project. Donato said the storm damage figured to play a prominent role in the discussion.
“This was one heck of a storm,” Sea Isle City Mayor Leonard Desiderio said. “Three days straight with no breaks. The wind just wouldn’t stop.”
Atlantic County
In Atlantic County, officials set a preliminary damage estimate of more than $16 million — a figure significantly less than in Ocean and Cape May counties.
Office of Emergency Management Director Vince Jones said Atlantic County probably was spared more damage because of the way its shore resorts are positioned relative to Cape May and Ocean counties.
“We were tucked in from them,” he said. “That’s one thing that kind of works in our favor.”
Atlantic City Office of Emergency Management Director Tom Foley said the resort’s estimate remains at about $8 million, a figure that likely will increase once all costs are gathered.
For instance, Foley said the city was still trying to contact off-duty police and fire officials — who worked around the clock for several days during the storm — to determine things such as overtime costs.
Foley said the state — and probably other municipalities — need more time to adequately figure damage costs.
“To have those numbers ready by today is absurd,” Foley said Monday, the day the state wanted the numbers. “You just can’t do it. They have to give you more than one day to get accurate numbers. The state has to be a little more reasonable than that.”
Morici said the state will not release any damage figures until the numbers are final.
“We don’t want to build up hopes or wind up disappointing anyone,” Morici said. “We want to make sure that the numbers we give are the accurate numbers.”
Accurate numbers, and the following of all protocols, are necessary to avoid any potential problems with getting federal financial assistance, he said.
Contact Donna Weaver:
609-226-9198
Contact Thomas Barlas:
609-272-7201
Contact Michael Miller:
609-463-6712
Posted in CAPE MAY | TOP THREE | ATLANTIC | ATLANTIC CITY | OCEAN on Monday, November 16, 2009 1:30 pm Updated: 11:07 pm.
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