NORTH WILDWOOD – Winter Storm Kenan took some toll on county beaches, though its effects weren’t as bad as many had feared, thanks, in part, to a favorable wind direction.
The north end of North Wildwood, which may be home to the county’s most vulnerable beaches, sustained “pretty rough” damage from the storm, according to Administrator Ron Simone.
The city suffered large cutouts to the dune and berm, from 13th-16th avenues, and experienced a loss of material from Second to Seventh avenues, Simone said in a text to the Herald.
There was also some loss at both stockpile areas the city utilizes for its annual sand back passing effort, to truck sand from Wildwood to fill North Wildwood’s beaches, Simone said. The city just approved a contract for this year’s effort last week.
The city collects and stores sand in huge piles before spreading it prior to Memorial Day, but stockpile areas, between Seventh and 16th avenues and 17th and 22nd avenues, were damaged.
Data from a post-storm survey into the extent of the damage was still pending, as of Feb. 7, Simone said.
The north end of Avalon also experienced noticeable damage, with large cutouts to the dune and berm caused by the storm, most significantly between 11th and 15th streets.
According to Borough Administrator Scott Wahl, the beachfront was under evaluation last week by the town’s engineering team. Even before the storm hit, Avalon anticipated needing to move about 60,000 cubic yards of sand to a severely eroded area concentrated from 11th-13th streets, feathering it out south.
Wahl said in an email that the back passing project, much smaller in scale than North Wildwood’s annual effort, is likely the only project that the borough will have to do to repair the beaches.
“We do not anticipate at this time any need to bring sand in or accelerate a hydraulic beach fill project. We understand we are in the queue for a fairly large hydraulic fill project that would happen anytime well after this summer and before summer 2023,” Wahl wrote in an email to the Herald.
In Ocean City, spokesperson Doug Bergen told the Herald the storm was “not particularly damaging” there.
According to Bergen, “After any storm, Public Works crews knock down any escarpments that may have formed to make the beaches safe for the public. As part of spring beach preparations, we’ll move sand from stockpiles to shore up the most vulnerable sections of beach.”
Bergen added Ocean City also expects the federal hydraulic dredge project to be on schedule, ahead of summer 2023.
In Sea Isle City, spokesperson Katherine Custer said things weren’t too bad, and that the city experienced “minor erosion up and down our shoreline,” but was “fortunate our dune system was not affected at all.”
She said the city will keep an eye on the beaches and continue to monitor their condition as summer approaches.
To contact Shay Roddy, email sroddy@cmcherald.com.
