Nor'easter reminds us how vulnerable we are to 'another Sandy'
So here we are, white-knuckling another storm at the shore.
Just a few months ago it was Hurricane Joaquin. Now it's a nor'easter the Weather Channel calls Jonas.
Joaquin, Jonas, superstorms or nor'easters, no matter how they're named or categorized, they come with the same message: Maybe not this time, but someday, we're going to get another Sandy. And we're going to get another Sandy because, in some places, we keep doing the same things we did before Sandy. In those places, we build everything but dunes.
Luckily, none of the subsequent storms have lived up to the "another Sandy" hype. This weekend's was bad enough, with lots of local flooding, blizzard conditions and piles of snow that led to damage, but nothing as cataclysmic as what happened during Sandy.
No matter how "record-setting" or "epic" these storms have been advertised, when the clouds clear, we've seen worse.
And yet, 39 months removed from Sandy, there is still no statewide consensus on how to deal with beach erosion or bay flooding, the Army Corps of Engineers dune and beach replenishing plan for the Sandy-ravaged Ocean County barrier island remains stuck in legal limbo, and towns are approving blueprints on the very foundations swallowed by the hurricane.
"The last state master plan on beach erosion was in 1981," said Tim Dillingham, executive director of the American Littoral Society, which is headquartered at Sandy Hook. "A lot has changed since then. We've had more development, bay flooding has become a bigger issue and we have to deal with future issues, like rising sea levels.
"These storms show how vulnerable the New Jersey coast remains," he said.
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A single, 100-yard stretch of Ortley Beach told that story again this weekend.
Ortley Beach is one of the oceanfront sections of Toms River Township and the damage done there by Sandy was catastrophic. Square blocks of homes were blown off their foundations by the storm surges, and collapsed like houses of cards. Six hundred had to be demolished. Twice that number sustained severe damage. The streets were filled with feet of sand washed up from a duneless beach and the west side of the island was inundated with bay water from the tidal surge.
Early this morning, as the roiling high tide came in with the dawn, a team from the Toms River emergency management office met in the Lord House lifeguard station to see how their township-made dunes were holding up.
Opening the heavy, hurricane-proof doors was a two-man job, as the east-to-west wind gusts clocked north of 35 mph and just south of 50. The lashing wind was harsh enough to make looking into it impossible without industrial-strength safety glasses. Bits of stinging sand, frozen rain and snow flew horizontally over the 30-foot-wide, 15-foot-high sand dune.
"It's doing its job," said Lou Amoroso, Toms River director of public works, who oversaw the megaton build-up of sand on beach.
The township built its own dunes because the Army Corps of Engineers dune and beach replenishment plan for the barrier island is stalled due to legal wrangling over easement.
The sand mound closest to the boardwalk is the last line of defense against the thundering sea, but a second dune -- what Amoroso described as township-made sandbar -- was also doing its job.
Amoroso pointed to a spot at which 10- to 12-foot waves were breaking -- about 75 yards from the dune by the boardwalk.
"That's our sandbar," he said, explaining that it forced the waves to break further out, diminishing their power. "We put a lot of sand on this beach."
But by mid-afternoon, the ocean had eaten half of it. Two beachfront houses, both destroyed by Sandy and rebuilt on the exact same spot, now had the sea swirling underneath them, pulling sand away from the wood pilings.
Throughout the day, police checked the dunes for signs of a possible breach.
Paul Daley, the Toms River coordinator of emergency management said he thought the dune would "hold up through the night," specifically the second high tide-cycle of the storm at around 7 p.m.
But as the relentless waves carved out canyons in the dunes and sent spray and foam airborne over the boardwalk, township officials moved emergency vehicles up to Ocean Ave. in case there had to be a mandatory evacuation.
"At least there aren't too many people (in Ortley for the winter)," said Daley. "We know where they all are."
Paul Jeffrey, president of the Ortley Beach Taxpayer and Voter Association, is one of those year-round residents and since Sandy he's been pushing to get the Army Corp project done.
The Army Corps agreed to move ahead without easements from Point Pleasant Beach and Bay Head, where homeowners funded their own rock wall, if they could get them from Mantoloking on down.
"We still have 20 beach associations in Brick Township and Toms River alone that haven't signed easement agreements," he said.
This is no small matter. Some beach associations require every member to sign easement. "We just cleared one legal hurdle (an appellate court ruling that the state didn't have the legal authority to make easement deals, which was just rectified by the legislature)," Jeffrey said. "So now we're back to either getting the holdouts to sign or using eminent domain."
Meanwhile, time goes by. Another storm comes and goes. And another Sandy is in the future.
Mark Di Ionno may be reached at mdiionno@starledger.com. Follow The Star-Ledger on Twitter @StarLedger and find us on Facebook.