Jonas Damage Viewed by Legislators; Dunes Worked to Protect Property

SEA ISLE CITY – New Jersey Senators Robert Menendez and Cory Booker (both D-NJ) and Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R-2nd) visited Sea Isle City Jan. 26 to gain first-hand impressions and assess damage caused by Winter Storm Jonas Jan. 22-24. 
This visit followed on the heels of one from Trenton officials that included Acting Gov. Kim Guadagno and Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Robert Martin the prior day.
At an earlier city council meeting Jan. 26, Mayor Leonard Desiderio announced the visit saying it “Marked an historic day for Sea Isle City.”
Desiderio accompanied the officials to a number of sites which had been affected by the blizzard and thus stood as emblematic of the severe damage wreaked by Jonas.
Stopping at Marie’s Seafood Restaurant on Park Road, the main street in the city’s historic “Fish Alley,” the group took in where water had surged five feet from the back bay. It brought large quantities of debris and mud, ruining everything in its wake.
Booker, who had just come from shoveling snow in Camden, noted “It’s great to see such resiliency and that the dunes held but there is still a lot of damage here, it’s amazing the amount of damage. I’m very glad to be here and have made the trip to see for myself how much damage there really is.”
Moving on to Mike’s Seafood, adjacent to Marie’s, the group heard Michael Monichetti talk about how the surge of rushing water from the back bay was “faster than any storm I’ve lived through and I’ve been here for 50 years.
“The water came in one constant motion with mud flowing constantly along with the rushing water. The force was so strong I thought the windows would blow out. Included in all that muck were what I called ‘icebergs’ which were huge chunks of ice coming from the bay water which had frozen in the last few days of very cold weather.”  
Marking the three feet height of the water level reached during the storm, Monichetti counted the bricks on the façade of his store and stopped just short of the level where flooding waters had surged during Sandy in 2012.
He described how his grandfather started the store in 1911 having come from Naples, Italy.
Monichetti added that the store has provided a livelihood for his family and him including two autistic children. “I want to thank Sen. Menendez not only for coming to visit Sea Isle but also for the legislation he has sponsored to support autism and I know first-hand how important that support is,” Monichetti said.
Monichetti and other city business owners whose stores were damaged by Jonas all said that they have seen more damage from storms and flooding in the last five years than the last 50 years in his case.
While in Sea Isle City the officials visited the Avalon Coffee Co. which was destroyed by a fire unrelated to the storm. The group had been in West Wildwood prior to visiting the municipality and then headed to Atlantic City.
Desiderio noted “Without the dunes which held, and did the job they were supposed to, and the excellent work of the Army Corps of Engineers, there would have been a lot more damage, especially from the salt water of the ocean which is a lot more destructive.”
Menendez summed up his own and the group’s impressions noting, “While beach replenishment and building dunes are expensive we are saving lives and people’s way of life. It’s a good business decision to make that investment and prevent even more expensive damage from occurring. We will continue to fight in Washington so that we have adequate funds to keep our coastal communities safe.”
To contact Camille Sailer, email csailer@cmcherald.com.