Daybreak in Avalon: Flooding Over, High Winds at Shore

AVALON- Day­break in Avalon was expected to bring much bet­ter weather con­di­tions than the bor­ough expe­ri­enced dur­ing an all time record high tide last night.
Hur­ri­cane Sandy has departed the region, and at 6:15 am Tues­day, Avalon was expe­ri­enc­ing sus­tained winds at 30 mph with higher gusts and an air tem­per­a­ture of 49 degrees. Bands of rain fell in Avalon overnight, but most of the rain has left the island. On Mon­day evening, Avalon expe­ri­enced an all time record high tide event that brought severe flood­ing and some dam­age to the borough.
The National Weather Ser­vice has posted a Flood Warn­ing this morn­ing and a Coastal Flood Advi­sory through early this after­noon. Avalon received in excess of eight inches of rain dur­ing Hur­ri­cane Sandy and the flood warn­ing remains for this morning’s high tide for the poten­tial of street flood­ing com­pounded by the heavy rain and high tide event. A High Wind Warn­ing also remains in effect until 3pm Tues­day for winds sus­tained to 30 mph with some gusts to 50 mph still possible.
The Avalon Office of Emer­gency Man­age­ment reminds res­i­dents and vis­i­tors that the manda­tory evac­u­a­tion of our com­mu­nity remains in effect until fur­ther notice. Re-entry to Avalon is not per­mit­ted for any­one until the Avalon OEM declares the com­mu­nity safe. Avalon Police, fire­fight­ers, pub­lic works, and emer­gency offi­cials will con­duct a major assess­ment day today to deter­mine unsafe con­di­tions in the Bor­ough. Avalon expe­ri­enced some street and prop­erty dam­age, beach ero­sion, and other issues dur­ing Sandy. Just because the weather con­di­tions are improv­ing does not mean you should begin your trip to Avalon.
Avalon will inform you of the re-entry pro­ce­dure on www.avalonemergency.org, on Avalon’s Face­book page, and via Global Con­nect 9–1-1 tele­phone call. It is impos­si­ble to deter­mine at this time when re-entry will be allowed. Var­i­ous states of emer­gen­cies are still in effect by the State of New Jer­sey and by the Cape May County Office of Emer­gency Man­age­ment in our coastal com­mu­ni­ties in New Jer­sey, and var­i­ous high­ways and road­ways con­tinue to be shut down due to flood­ing and debris.
New Jer­sey Trans­porta­tion offi­cials have closed the Gar­den State Park­way in both direc­tions from Exit 129 south to Exit 0 in Cape May due to prob­lems caused by Hur­ri­cane Sandy. Var­i­ous detours were being reported by the state on Route 47, Route 347, and on Route 49 due to var­i­ous flood­ing and debris issues. Please pay atten­tion to tra­di­tional media for updates on road con­di­tions out­side of the Bor­ough of Avalon.