Buried Outfall Pipes Cause Flooding in Wildwood

WILDWOOD – The storm named Sandy did something very few storms can lay claim to – it brought water up over Wildwood’s massive beach to the point that it neared the city’s famous boardwalk.
“We did extremely well,” said Mayor Ernest Troiano, “other than the unfortunate water getting into lower level properties. We can complain, but we can’t complain too loudly.”
The city had a minimal loss of major property, said Troiano. The losses incurred included the roof of the Monaco Hotel and siding from Grandview hotel being blown off by Sandy’s high winds.
While winds caused damage as they whipped through the city, flooding from the storm was not as severe as initially anticipated. According to the mayor, the bay and the ocean did not meet because ocean waves and surges never made it onto the boardwalk.
“The waves were breaking at least 1,000 feet off the boardwalk,” said Troiano, “and then the tidal flood was coming in. We have one or two sections where it breached the boardwalk where we had openings.”
Several beach walkways found their way to Pine and Atlantic after traveling in the water’s movement. Troiano said the city lost innumerable walkways.
“We had them all stored underneath,” said the mayor. “And they just traveled.”
With a year-round population of 5,000, not enough people heeded the call for mandatory evacuation, said Troiano.
“We had to rescue 20 – 25 people after the fact,” he said. Troiano said people were saying, “We’ll heed the next time. We didn’t think it would be this bad.”
Troiano, a lifetime resident of the city, remembers the Storm of 1962. He said property damage from the storm half a century ago was far greater than Sandy’s destruction.
“The beach was only 600 – 800 feet deep, so the waves were breaking on the boardwalk and on the other side of the boardwalk,” explained Troiano of the ’62 storm.
While other beach towns need to replenish sand constantly, Mother Nature seems to put sand at Wildwood’s feet. That caused problems with outfall lines.
“The extreme rains we had, and the fact that our outfall pipes are locally short and deep is why Pacific Avenue flooded,” said Troiano.
According to the mayor, the pipes are 800 feet short of the water and sit 12 feet below grade. City workers frequently dig the pipes out from the sand to allow them to flow.
“This is where the Army Corps of Engineers and the DEP will not address our sitation,” said Troiano. “We have a serious problem, too, but they won’t do anything about it.”
The mayor said every time municipalities north of the city experience a beach replenishment, the sand piles up on Wildwood’s beach.
“They get deeper and further down,” said Troiano. “And when it’s saturated, you dig a hole and it sinks back in. We were down there for the better part of three days trying to dig these outfall pipes out.”
Troiano said businesses on Pacific Avenue had over a foot of water inside.
“There was no need for that, if the outfall pipes worked,” he added. “I have man-made damage.”