AVALON – Avalon’s Bay Park Marina was the perfect setting for the New Jersey Coastal Coalition (NJCC) to release its new regional report detailing flood risks in 13 participating communities.
The report is a product of a joint investigation involving the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (ACE).
The report provides precise locations where flood risks exist. The report’s aim is to help communities apply for grant funding to aid in developing greater resiliency.
To that end, Cape May County Office of Emergency Management Coordinator Martin Pagliughi spoke on new federal grant resources he expects to be in place by August.
“This report will be beneficial to those communities who wish to apply for grant opportunities that will assist in the remediation of flood risks,” Pagliughi said.
Thomas Quirk, executive director of the NJCC, called the report a “road map” to help with funding. Quirk said the NJCC contacted ACE in 2019 with a list of 13 communities that should be studied for their flood risks. He called the results “compelling.”
Pagliughi said one goal was to have shovel ready projects defined by the time the new funding is available. Among the Cape May County communities studied were Ocean City, Upper Township, Sea Isle City, Avalon, Stone Harbor, North Wildwood, West Wildwood, Wildwood Crest, Cape May, and Cape May Point. The other communities were in Atlantic, Cumberland, and Middlesex counties.
Each of these communities experiences flooding due to high frequency storm events and tidal fluctuations. Pagliughi sees the new report as key to “unlock” funding opportunities in communities that have proven they are serious about flood resiliency.
The report also helps communities improve their Community Rating System (CRS) status as Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) new rating system increases flood insurance premiums for many in the island communities.
Improvements in CRS status translate into larger premium discounts in the National Flood Insurance Program.
Quirk said the report anticipates the impact of sea level rise in coastal communities in the years 2030 to 2080. The report also outlines flood-related information from evacuation routes to storm communication to essential services in a flood event.
The NJCC is a group of 38 New Jersey floodplain communities that work together to address municipal flooding issues. Quirk spoke of the coalition as a group of communities exemplifying “good government” as they work to anticipate risks in their towns.
For Pagliughi, the report was more evidence of the ongoing regional effort to detail exactly “where the vulnerabilities are and what to do about them.”
Contact the author, Vince Conti, at vconti@cmcherald.com.
