Long Beach Township Police Chief: Dunes Held During Storm

by Patricia A. Miller

None of the dunes in the various sections of Long Beach Township were breached during the weekend blizzard, Police Chief Michael Bradley said.

But the water was up to the dune line in the Holgate section of the township, where the Army Corps of Engineers beach replenishment project was halted late in December. The project is slated to start again in the spring.

“Hopefully we can address the issues in the future,” he said.

The Public Works Department and Mayor Joseph Mancini are assessing any additional beach and bayfront problems today, the chief said.

Roughly 400 homes in the High Bar Harbor section of the township lost power for about 24 hours during the storm. But only about 10 percent of the homes are occupied during the winter, Bradley said.

Some residents came to the warming center at the Long Beach Island School in Ship Bottom during other scattered outages during the storm, but none needed to stay overnight, the chief said.

Long Beach Township and the other towns on the island share the warming center during storms.

The Boulevard and other main streets are open, but some side streets still have debris from bayfront flooding in the roadways, he said.

“The ocean did not breach,” he said.