By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
Rebecca Kleinert and Debbie Abt looked in amazement at what appeared to be a vast white wall stretching along the beach between Fifth and Sixth streets.
Actually, this “wall” was the remnant of sand dunes partially washed away by the raging ocean during the four-day coastal storm that finally made its long-overdue departure Wednesday – after pummeling the shore with drenching rains, gusty winds and flooding.
Some of the damaged dunes resembled steep mini-cliffs about 8 feet high, as if Mother Nature had used a gigantic kitchen knife to slice away the sand like a piece of wedding cake.
“It was unbelievable. We came out every day to look at the waves,” Kleinert said of the ocean’s fury.
Kleinert, who lives in Warminster, Pa., had visited Ocean City over the weekend to renew her wedding vows with her husband, Mark. They planned to have a ceremony on the beach Sunday to celebrate their 25-year marriage, but the storm changed everything.
“We ended up doing it in a house instead of on the beach,” Kleinert said.
Abt, who is Kleinert’s sister-in-law and also lives in Warminster, recalled her harrowing drive to the shore on the Garden State Parkway during the storm.
“The water was getting close to the parkway,” she said. “I thought to myself, ‘If it gets any closer, I’m not going to make it.’”
Abt said the lingering storm – the remnants of Hurricane Ian combined with a nor’easter that stalled off the coast – seemed liked it was around “forever.”
Communities along the Jersey Shore suffered beach erosion and damaged dunes during the storm. A walk Wednesday afternoon along Ocean City’s north end beaches from Fifth to Ninth streets revealed what appeared to be significant erosion.
Fortunately for Ocean City, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced Monday that it has awarded a $21.5 million contract to replenish the north end and downtown beaches between 14th Street and the Seaview Road jetty. Altogether, the beaches will be restored with 1.2 million cubic yards of fresh sand.
The announcement by the Army Corps of Engineers came at the same time that the storm was still battering the shore, but the events were not related, Ocean City spokesman Doug Bergen said.
“Ocean City sees many wind and storm events each year that cause beach erosion, and the Army Corps does not time its replenishment projects to respond to individual storms. But it’s reassuring to know that we’re part of a 50-year agreement that keeps our beaches and dunes healthy,” Bergen said in an email Wednesday
Beach replenishment in Ocean City initially was done in 1992 and continues on a three-year cycle under a 50-year partnership between the town, the Army Corps’ Philadelphia office and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.
Starting in November, sand will be dredged offshore from an area of Great Egg Harbor Inlet known as a “borrow site” and then pumped through a pipeline onto the beaches between 14th Street and Seaview Road in the north end.
In a separate project estimated to cost $30 million, the shoreline in Ocean City’s south end will be replenished in 2023 along with the beaches in Strathmere and Sea Isle City, it was announced earlier this year. The contract for that project still must be awarded.
The north end beaches and dunes around Fifth and Sixth streets are among the most vulnerable areas of the island for erosion. Some sections of the dunes near Sixth Street were nearly gone Wednesday, with only the protective sand fencing still standing. Other sections of the dunes were marked by steep drop-offs resembling mini-cliffs.
“It’s definitely bad. This was a bad one,” Cristen Ferguson said of the beach and dune erosion caused by the storm.
Ferguson, who lives in Philadelphia and has a summer vacation home in Strathmere, was visiting Ocean City to watch her son, Kyle, surf in the big waves kicked up by the storm.
She noted that the storm was strong enough to cause street flooding on Commonwealth Avenue in Strathmere, the first time she had seen that since Hurricane Sandy in October 2012.
Jess Kohles, Ferguson’s friend, also lives in Philadelphia and has a summer vacation home in Strathmere. Kohles was watching her daughter, Gemma, and son, Taggart, surf off the Sixth Street beach on Wednesday. She seemed to take the storm in stride.
“We’re veterans of the shore, so we’re used to all of this,” Kohles said. “It was far worse in Strathmere than it was here in Ocean City.”
