Three-day storm rips through county

Millions in damage estimated in Upper

Nov, 19-2009 11:41 am

By CLAIRE LOWE
Staff Writer

STRATHMERE—While the water has receded in most areas of Upper Township, many areas were practically under water Thursday and Friday after a nor’easter, bolstered by Tropical Storm Ida, washed over the state. So bad was some of the damage in the county that Freeholder Vice-Director Ralph E. Sheets Jr. and county Emergency Management Director Frank McCall, at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 12, signed an Emergency Proclamation declaring a state of emergency to exist in Cape May County, which was rescinded on Sunday, Nov. 15.
The storm, which began on Thursday and lasted into Saturday, brought with it coastal flooding, over 30 mph winds, about four inches of rainfall and eight-foot waves. Thankfully, a beach replenishment project in Strathmere, which was completed over the summer, was not completely washed away, according to Paul Dietrich, township engineer. He said there is only about 30,000 cubic yards of potential sand loss, from preliminary estimates. In August, the Army Corps of Engineers completed a $6 million fill, placing 890,000 cubic yards of sand onto the beaches.
Driving down Ocean Drive in Strathmere on Monday, several utility trucks could be seen working on connections and the Upper Township Public Works Department was out with tractors moving sand and debris out of the roadways. Bill Layton of the Upper Township Public Works Department was directing traffic down the stretch of sand covered road at Taylor Avenue as his crew cleared piles of wood and broken furniture out of the way. According to Layton, crews would be working all day Monday on cleanup, work which had begun over the weekend as the storm began to let up.  
Dietrich said that the preliminary estimates total $2.6 million in damage, most of which is from the sand loss. Whereas beach towns like Sea Isle City suffered significant loss, he said Strathmere was lucky.
“Our losses on the beach were not as severe as some of the neighboring towns as far as beach erosion,” Dietrich said. “Talking with Dr. (Stewart) Farrell, (marine sciences professor at the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey), we think it was a combination of the width of our berm that we just built…and that we constructed a new dune in front of the older dune. We placed dune fences out there to catch blowing sand.”
He said that by the time the waves rolled all the way up the dune to the fences, they were out of enough energy to cause too much damage.
“I think we survived pretty well, considering,” Upper Township Mayor Rich Palombo, who surveyed the beach Tuesday with Committeeman Curtis Corson Jr., said.
He added that the beach replenishment “actually did its job.”
“We lost sand in depth, but not necessarily in length,” he said.
Dietrich said that there wasn’t much structural damage to public or private structures in the township.
“It’s going to take a week of clean up crews and stuff doing some clean up work both on the mainland and on the barrier island,” Dietrich said. “On the mainland, most of the damage is going around residences and picking up tree limbs.”
Power outages plagued many areas. According to the Strathmere Improvement Association, Bayview Drive lost power from 9 p.m. to 4 a.m. Wednesday night, 5 to 3 p.m. Thursday into Friday and 1 to 3:30 p.m. on Saturday.
A worker from Atlantic City Electric replacing lines in Sea Isle City on Monday said that on Friday, many employees were out on the barrier island doing repair work to damaged utility wires. He said it was a 16-hour workday.
At about 10 a.m. on Nov. 13, Foster announced the closure of Tuckahoe Road, Tyler Road and Butter Road.
“The cedar swamp creek, and their associated wetlands, because of all the tidal flooding it just backed up into those areas. It hasn’t flooded those streets since 1992,” Dietrich said.
“It’s definitely, from a flooding standpoint, one of the worst flooding ones we’ve had since 1992,” he said.
“Before the storm began, we were predicting that this would be one of the five worst storms in the history of Cape May County and predictably it would rank in that category,” McCall said.
Single anomalies, he said, posed some of the biggest issues for the county. A Geo tube blew out in Ocean City, high tide and a recent barge accident caused problems with the Townsends Inlet Bridge, and flooding problems mounted in Whale Beach, North Wildwood and West Wildwood. At any point over the weekend, one or all of the county bridges were closed. Voluntary evacuations were announced and as many as 2200 may have left their homes for high, dryer ground.
The county called in assistance from the New Jersey National Guard, the New Jersey State Forest Fire Service, the New Jersey Department of Transportation and the New Jersey State Police Incident Management Unit, McCall said.
“Thank God the National Guard was here with their vehicles and thank God that the forest service made their vehicles available to us,” he said.
McCall said that preparation for any storm begins well in advance of the storm’s predicted landfall.
“Every time we have an indication of a storm, we put our Emergency Operation Plan into action,” he said.
“Everybody in our first responder community performed their work just in an outstanding fashion,” McCall said.
After four days of response, the recovery period has begun. The Federal Emergency Management Administration sent a number of teams down Tuesday to do a survey of the area, which will most likely be completed by the end of the week. County administrator Stephen O’Connor said a monetary estimate of the damage the nor’easter brought will not be available until the survey is complete.
Governor Jon Corzine declared a state of emergency Sunday for Cape May, Atlantic, Cumberland, Burlington, Ocean and Monmouth counties. Corzine cited “severe weather conditions (that) have caused significant beach erosion, damage to dunes and debris conditions” in the state’s shore towns in making the declaration. McCall said he expected storm damage in those counties to exceed the $8.3 million amount needed for disaster relief.
Palombo said that Upper Township is looking for funding to help pay for its cleanup.
“We are going forward and put a figure into the county to be considered for some federal money,” he said.
Sgt. Patrick Gorman, of the New Jersey State Police’s Office of Emergency Management, said FEMA teams will survey the rest of Cape May County and hopes to complete their assessments by the end of the week. They have a lot of ground to cover, he said.
“The beaches, public assistance and private assistance, every community experienced something as a result of this storm,” he said. “Inland communities, some of them had public buildings damaged. We will be here until the job is done.”
Gorman said home owners and business owners should not wait for federal aid to begin repairs. He urged property owners to begin work now.
Whether property owners will be reimbursed through any federal grants, for insurance deductibles for instance, depends on the individual insurance plan, he said.
The Small Business Association has also has sent representatives to the area.
“What they’ll do is they’ll work with businesses and homeowners to help them get back to normalcy after the storm,” McCall said, which will be through actual assistance grants and low interest loans.

Claire Lowe can be e-mailed at claire.lowe@catamaranmedia.com or you can comment on this story by calling 624-8900, ext. 243.