Cry me a river, buy me a canoe

Last Updated on Monday, August 13, 2012 02:46 pm Written by Cindy Nevitt Friday, August 10, 2012 01:00 am

From a city that sometimes makes Venice look like a puddle, you’d expect a list ranking the worst spots for flooding.

Your expectations would be unmet, however, because Ocean City does not have any such document.

Neither rain nor hail nor sleet nor dark of night can stay the U.S. Postal Service from its rounds. But what about flooding, such as this at the end of West 55th Street?

What it does have is a ranking of the streets that are plagued by deficient drainage, which, according to the Asphalt Institute, identifies “areas of pavement that hold water 24 hours after a rain event or roads that cannot drain the 10-year storm event.”

Interestingly, tidal flooding is not considered when assessing deficient drainage, even though the primary ingredient in tidal flooding is water, which is the exact same primary ingredient in rain and storms. It appears the Asphalt Institute, an umbrella association for producers and manufacturers of petroleum asphalt that dates to 1919, has managed to survive for the last century despite its confusion over the definition of water.

It is the rating form of this logic-challenged organization that the city has used in assessing the state of its sorry infrastructure. The institute uses a scale of 0-10 in 13 categories to determine a road’s condition. A rating of 10 in any one category – interestingly, the city website uses the very example of drainage when explaining how the ratings work – “may constitute the need to prioritize improvements to that road.”

There are 26 sections of Ocean City’s roads and 12 portions of alleys that rate a 10 in deficient drainage. Most (21) of those streets are in the 4th Ward. This is the Ward that pays 35 percent of the city’s tab through taxes, yet has 55 percent of the city’s worst roads when it comes to drainage. This is what we are getting for our money? The opportunity to wear hip waders and park our cars a healthy hike from our flood-threatened abodes?

Well, yes. Yes, it is.

Flood mitigation has become the new road repair. A few weeks ago, repaving the streets was Job No. 1. But an outcry from the constituency has convinced City Council that Job No. 1 is flood mitigation, and so flood mitigation is now on everyone’s radar.

I have stated, to the point of sounding like a broken record, that I live on one of the city’s Top 10 worst roads. Yet my street, on which portions have standing water on even the driest, hottest days of the year, scored only a 9 in drainage deficiency. For overall riding quality, it scored an 8, which is great if you’re in an off-road vehicle. If you’re tooling around in a passenger car, every trip on the road to my house is a potential front-end alignment.

The terminus of West 55th Street, which floods dramatically at normal high tide, isn’t even on the city’s list of worst roads. How this can be, is beyond comprehension. This is a road where the sidewalk in front of the last three houses is slimy from constant submersion. It’s a road where the mailman should arrive by kayak and the residents should pray they never have to evacuate in an emergency through their front doors because that path is paved with 100 percent H2O.

The city, in assessing two sections of 55th Street, somehow awarded both areas such impressive strings of goose eggs (remember, 0 is a golden score) that 55th Street should be the poster child for perfect roads instead of the watery reality it is.

Because he says drainage deficiency rankings are insufficient in determining the worst flood areas, Councilman Keith Hartzell is calling for the city to come up with criteria to rate the flooding on its 108 miles of streets and alleys. I’m pretty sure the Asphalt Institute can help him with that.

We shouldn’t have to come up with our own flood ranking system. On a planet that is 70 percent covered by water, there should exist a flood ranking system after which Ocean City can pattern its own. Let’s not re-invent the paddle wheel here, people. Let’s get on it and ride already.

From the following list of roads and alleys that scored a 10 in deficient drainage, I can easily attest to many of them being flood-prone areas. Haven Avenue is riddled with low spots, including the alley that ends at 12th Street between Haven and West. That’s one block from where Hurricane Gloria deposited 18 inches of water into my condo at 13th and Haven in September 1985.

West Avenue is equally disastrous. When has Wawa ever closed? When it’s been underwater, as was the one in the 1200 block of West in the November 2009 nor’easter. That’s in the block where 12th ends at West, which scored a 10 in drainage deficiency.

Fourth Street, which is one of the few drainage deficient streets not in the 4th Ward, is in horrendous condition, too. The street, which scored 10s in drainage deficiency at Wesley, Central and Asbury, became impassable two weeks ago following a torrential downpour. My husband, son and I, leaving Positively 4th Street Café that Sunday morning after the half-hour deluge, were forced to remove our shoes and walk barefoot back to our car as rainwater surged over the curb and the grass median and onto the sidewalk.

The following is a list of the roads and alleys that the city awarded a 10 in drainage deficiency:

Second Street ending at West Avenue

Third Street ending at West Avenue

11th Street ending at West Avenue

12th Street ending at West Avenue

West/Asbury alley ending at Third Street

West/Asbury alley ending at 40th Street

Second Street ending at Asbury Avenue

Fourth Street ending at Asbury Avenue

21st Street ending at Asbury Avenue

39th Street ending at Asbury Avenue

40th Street ending at Asbury Avenue

Asbury/Central alley ending at 54th Street

Asbury/Central alley ending at 56th Street

Fourth Street ending at Wesley Avenue

28th Street ending at Wesley Avenue

Fourth Street ending at Central Avenue

38th Street ending at Central Avenue

39th Street ending at Central Avenue

42nd Street ending at Central Avenue

51st Street ending at the beach

Argyle Place ending at the dead end

Haven Avenue ending at 26th Street

Haven Avenue ending at 29th Street

Haven Avenue ending at 31st Street

Haven Avenue ending at 32nd Street

Haven Avenue ending at 49th Street

Haven Avenue ending at 53rd Street

Haven Avenue ending at 54th Street

Haven/West alley ending at 12th Street

Haven/West alley ending at 24th Street

Haven/West alley ending at 28th Street

Simpson/Haven alley ending at 14th Street

Simpson/Haven alley ending at 29th Street

Simpson/Haven alley ending at 32nd Street

Simpson/Haven alley ending at Third Street

Simpson/Haven alley ending at Fourth Street

Simpson Avenue ending at 24th Street

Stenton Place ending at Corinthian Avenue

 

 

 

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