PETERSBURG — Hurricane Erin stayed well offshore on its path north past southern New Jersey last week, but its strong winds churned up the sea, pounding the shore and taking a large bite out of Garden State beaches.
Committeeman Sam Palombo provided an account of the storm’s effect on the island community of Strathmere, where erosion is prevalent in the north end even on a good day.
There were few good days last week.
“I don’t think I’ve talked to Jimmy (Van Zlike) or Curtis (Corson) more than in the last, I want to say, 72 hours over what just transpired out in the Atlantic Ocean,” Palombo said.
He provided a timeline on the township’s response to the storm.
On Wednesday, the Department of Public Works started removing items from the beach such as dune fences, trash receptacles and things that could end up in the ocean.
The crew ran into a problem Thursday when it was discovered that a resident had illegally put bulk trash in the street.
“That had to get removed because we were making sure that no flooding water would move debris and damage somebody else or become a health hazard for those who are residents of Strathmere,” Palombo said.
He also noted the township erected barricades at beach entrances, something that was not popular with all island residents.
“We had to put barricades up to make sure that we didn’t have anyone on the pathways, knowing the fact that water was going to cut into the dunes,” Palombo said, noting Gov. Phil Murphy had declared a state of emergency.
On Thursday, he had received a text just after 7 p.m. stating the tide was going to rise rapidly.
“Within 20 minutes, the water was all the way up to the Commonwealth ramp and over into the shed,” he said. “There was stranding water into the trailer parks and by 8 p.m. I had received photos of the Strathmere church with the water right at the doorstep.”
Palombo said he was in Ocean City at 6:15 a.m. Friday and debris was scattered along Bay Avenue.
“There were huge waves at Fifth and Seventh. I had not seen the water go under the boardwalk in a very long time, since I was like a kid, and noticed that Ocean City had their streets barricaded because they didn’t want anyone entering the water,” he said, noting there were a number of surfers out in the water illegally.
“I get it, but some of us need to understand that those barricades are up for public safety issues,” Palombo said.
He then “high-tailed it over to the Public Works yard,” where he met with Superintendent Craig Reeves and Assistant Superintendent Mike Jones to formulate a plan for addressing the erosion.
“One of the biggest concerns that we had was if the water from high tide wouldn’t go back to low tide, which it didn’t; it stayed at a very stagnant area,” Palombo said.
He met with Mayor Corson that afternoon to tour the beach and assess the damage, finding scarps of more than 8 feet tall.
“We had significant damage. The pathway is completely gone at Williams Avenue — we have just a standing piece of wood that’s there,” Palombo said. “As I’m walking back to get to my car, it is low tide and low tide is up against the dune.”
He said that meant anything Public Works could do with its bulldozer “would have been a futile effort.”
“Anything that would have been done by Friday afternoon would have been lost because we also had a Friday night high tide, which cut further into that,” he said.
He noted the beach at Beesleys Point also was affected.
Public works spent the time there removing items on the beach, making it safe for those who wanted to boat or take their kids down to the bayfront “knowing that there’s not catastrophic waves or rip tides or anything like that.”
Complicating things further, there was a new moon Saturday that caused even more tide damage.
“So us moving through to replenish or restore any dunes would have been just another futile mistake,” he said.
Public Works was able to remove debris from the beach Saturday but couldn’t sculpt the dunes because they had to follow Department of Environmental Protection regulations, Palombo said.
Corson said by Monday, access was provided to beaches at Sherman Avenue, Sumner Avenue, Tecumseh Avenue, Vincent Road, Webster Avenue, Whittier Avenue and Willard Avenue.
“That’s a phenomenal job by Public Works,” he said.
Palombo noted that while addressing issues at the beach, “they were making sure all the services within the township were still getting done,” noting trash was picked up and Amanda’s Field was mowed.
“All the daily tasks that they have to do were still being accomplished,” Palombo said.
“Our Public Works stepped up and I really commend them on the job they did,” Corson said, noting the Upper Township Beach Patrol was on the scene helping pick up debris.
“Our lifeguards did a phenomenal job.”
Corson noted an incident that happened Saturday afternoon. At about 2:30 p.m., he said, there was a high school party at Corson’s Inlet State Park.
“They had children, young adults were in the water,” he said.
The UTBP went to the scene and asked those present to move out of the water.
“Some of them were out pretty far in the inlet; there’s some shallows and you can go way out there,” Corson said.
That prompted guards to dispatch a personal watercraft. However, before it arrived at the scene, it veered off and went somewhere else.
He said they had lost communication with the guards and was wondering what was going on, eventually discovering that they had responded to a capsized personal watercraft in which the operator was separated from the craft and “in a bad way.”
“That guy would have drowned even with his life vest; it was not a proper life vest,” Corson said.
The victim was taken to shore, evaluated by the beach medic and transported from the scene.
“That’s what they trained for,” Corson said. “Our guys were vey professional and did their job and will be at the next meeting for recognition.”
“All in all, Strathmere is still there and we’re going to work hard to make sure that it stays safe,” Palombo said.
Corson said multiple mayors from southern New Jersey were set to meet with U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew on Tuesday in hopes of getting some beach replenishment funds.
“Hopefully we have some good news,” Corson said.
Township Administrator Van Zlike said they conducted “full-scale operations on restoration of beach access points.”
“One point I would like to mention is that in applying action at the point of friction, I would tell you we have to balance public safety versus community access and recreation,” he said. “That’s a difficult balance and there’s often compromises between the two.”
He said restoration of the beach access points would continue this week, next week and into the fall.
– STORY by CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff
– PHOTOS by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff