Rain, tides put the Wildwoods under water

Sep, 19-2009 10:12 pm

By Carole Mattessich
Staff Writer

THE WILDWOODS – Residents, visitors, and Five Mile Beach’s bevy of new second-home owners all witnessed one very soggy aspect of Mother Nature’s strength at the shore late last week, as a fast moving storm added its fury to bands of prolonged rain, drenching – and flooding – areas throughout the Wildwoods.

The hardest hits were taken Friday, Sept. 11, as tidal and rain waters mixed to cover much of the island with water.

Schools throughout the island were closed.

In North Wildwood, officials were surprised to find that almost all scheduled guests – and members of the public – made it to the Patriot Day commemorative ceremony early Friday morning at City Hall. The ceremony, originally planned for outside, was moved indoors.

But that was probably the last regularly scheduled event to occur until Saturday, as rising tides began snarling traffic and, later, blocking off traffic altogether.

By Friday afternoon, water covered North Wildwood’s beaches, and had breached onto the streets in many locations.

“Our whole beach was under water,” Beach Patrol Chief Tony Cavalier said. From the head of each beach, he said, except for a few small patches of sand, all one could see was ocean.

Cavalier noted that a “couple feet of dune” were lost at Second Street, as well as part of the dune system at 23rd Avenue. By welcome coincidence, a massive beach replenishment program already was scheduled to begin here this week.

Mayor Bill Henfey said last Friday’s flooding was due principally to the unusually heavy rains.

“It wasn’t just the tidal situation, it was all that rain – 4 ½ inches of rain with nowhere to go,” Henfey said Monday. “Areas that don’t normally experience flooding experienced excessive rain water, and some residents who never experienced flooding problems before suddenly found water under their houses.”

“We did the best we could with the tools we had,” Henfey said, noting that things got back to normal relatively quickly once the rains subsided.

In West Wildwood, the borough had an opportunity to use its new reverse 911 system to warn residents of flooding.

“It went very, very well,” Mayor Herbert Frederick said of the system. “People got their cars up to higher ground, and they secured their property. In many sections of town, we fared very well compared to other communities.”

Frederick noted that while Wildwood and North Wildwood streets “retained a lot of water,” the borough avoided prolonged retainage because it has “done a lot of work cleaning out catch basins, and replacing storm gates.”

The worst area for flooding is Neptune Avenue, Frederick said, and, unfortunately, that area is “mid-island.”

“It cuts all the way across the borough, north to south, and for a period of time Friday it was dangerous to try to make passage,” Frederick explained. “Our municipal engineer already is in the process of preparing an application for federal funds to raise all of Neptune Avenue – our emergency equipment is located at the south end of that area, and they require adequate access.”

In light of tornado warnings from the National Weather Service Friday, the Borough Commission postponed its monthly meeting from Friday night, Sept. 11, to Friday, Sept. 18, at 9:00 a.m. in Borough Hall, Frederick noted.

In Wildwood, the “Roar to the Shore” bikers’ weekend was dampened a bit when the city’s Rio Grande Avenue entrance experienced heavy flooding by mid-morning Friday, and was shut down entirely by early afternoon.

By late Friday afternoon, Mayor Ernie Troiano noted, “the whole island was flooded – Ocean Avenue, Atlantic Avenue, Park Boulevard, everywhere was flooded.”

“I was out in the height of that stuff,” Troiano said. “We had 4.8 inches of rain in one hour, and when you put high tides together with almost five inches of rain, the water can’t get off the island.”

Troiano noted that the city’s outfall pipes frequently are covered with sand.

“Every day down here, we dig and trench, dig and trench, but the tides come up and cover the pipes again,” he said.

Last Friday’s problems were further complicated when flooding became so high that the city could no longer risk taking its equipment out, Troiano noted, adding that a long-term fix is needed and may have to come from the federal government.

“The government is spending millions and millions on beach replenishment in other communities, and, so far, they can’t find a way to help us. All of our flooding is because of the placement of our outfall pipes – everybody says ‘just fix ‘em,’ and I say ‘sure, give me 10 to 12 million and I’ll fix ‘em.’”

Troiano noted an irony in the beach replenishment project just beginning in North Wildwood: the new sand ultimately may shift downbeach to Wildwood and its already-beleaguered outfall pipes.

“They’ll pump that into North Wildwood and we’ll probably see it within the next couple years,” he said.

Troiano said Thursday and Friday were “somewhat of a disappointment” for Bikers’ Weekend, as bikers stayed home and out of the bad weather, but Saturday and Sunday “were strong.”

“Fortunately, the flooding occurred early enough that it didn’t really make too much of a difference during the rest of the weekend for those who did come down,” Commissioner Gary DeMarzo added.

In Wildwood Crest, it appeared that streets fared better than in other communities. Many of the bikers and other vehicles turned away from the Rio Grande Avenue entrance to Wildwood found their way to the southernmost entrance to Five Mile Island. For some Crest residents, that meant being treated to the “roar” part of “Roar to the Shore” as bikers tooled through their community to try to get access to Wildwood.