Stay Out! Avalon Won’t Allow Reentry; Damage Survey Continues

AVALON — Cape May County Office of Emer­gency Man­age­ment is sched­uled to hold a press con­fer­ence Oct. 30 at 3 p.m. to pro­vide more infor­ma­tion regard­ing the impact of Hur­ri­cane Sandy in bar­rier island com­mu­ni­ties in the region, includ­ing Avalon, stated the borough website.
“We thank you very much for your ques­tions and inter­est about poten­tial re-entry into the Bor­ough of Avalon. The Avalon Office of Emer­gency Man­age­ment, Avalon Police Depart­ment, Avalon Depart­ment of Pub­lic Works, and Avalon Vol­un­teer Fire Depart­ment con­tinue a dam­age assess­ment and cleanup oper­a­tion in the Bor­ough of Avalon. There will be no re-entry allowed into the Bor­ough of Avalon on Tues­day, Octo­ber 30th for any per­son for any rea­son at any time. Re-entry into Avalon will be announced as soon as pos­si­ble. We have debris on the streets, power out­ages through­out the com­mu­nity, no sewer ser­vice from the Cape May County Munic­i­pal Util­i­ties Author­ity, and some tele­phone and cable out­ages. There are some wires down on streets, along with a few boats. Re-entry will also not be per­mit­ted via neighboring com­mu­ni­ties who may allow their res­i­dents to access their com­mu­nity, includ­ing via Avalon Boule­vard and through the Bor­ough of Stone Harbor.
“The assess­ment and recov­ery process is hap­pen­ing as effi­ciently and quickly as pos­si­ble.
“Con­tinue to mon­i­tor www.avalonemergency.org and the Offi­cial Face­book Page for the Bor­ough of Avalon.
Re-entry instruc­tions will be posted online and deliv­ered via our Global Con­nect Reverse 9–1-1 noti­fi­ca­tion system. Re-entry by prop­erty own­ers and busi­ness own­ers in Avalon will not be per­mit­ted at any time, for any rea­son, until it is declared safe to do so. As of Tues­day morn­ing, the borough does not expect that to take place Oct. 30. They do not have a timetable yet but the borough website and the Avalon Face­book page and Global Con­nect 9–1-1 emer­gency tele­phone sys­tem will alert owners to re-entry instructions.
Avalon has debris on the streets, sig­nif­i­cant beach ero­sion, and other issues.