Ocean City Cleanup Continues After Storm; Bridges, Streets Reopen

OCEAN CITY, NJ — Ocean City is continuing storm cleanup and damage assessment after a stretch of flooding, high water and wind, with all bridges and streets now open, according to Mayor Jay Gillian.

In a message to residents Monday, Gillian said no further flooding is in the forecast and thanked people who stayed off the roads during the storm.

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"Ocean City has not seen many precedents to the water levels and wind that we saw over so many tide cycles," Gillian wrote. He said the city team is still cleaning up and assessing damage from the storm.

The city has opened its Shelter Road Recycling Center six days a week for residents to drop off bulk and storm-damaged material. The facility is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Gillian wrote that Shelter Road is off Tennessee Avenue, which intersects Bay Avenue near 22nd Street, and said dumpsters are being brought in to accept the material.

"Please be careful driving in this area, which includes playing fields for our students," he wrote.

Regular trash and recycling pickup will continue on a normal schedule, including yard and vegetative waste placed at curbside, according to the mayor's message. Gillian wrote that city staff will be assisting with those services and asked residents to be patient with curbside pickup and with drop-off at Shelter Road because volume is expected to be high. He also said Public Works vehicles are clearing sand and other material from streets.

Gillian said police and fire crews responded to many disabled vehicles and "a handful of lithium-ion battery fires in electric vehicles." He wrote that submerged or salt water-damaged lithium-ion items, including electric vehicles, e-bikes, scooters and battery-operated tools, remain a fire risk and urged residents to take precautions.

The mayor also said many vehicles were lost during unnecessary travel, despite warnings.

"Driving during these flooding events poses a danger not only to the drivers and their vehicles, but also to properties damaged by their wake," Gillian wrote.

He said City Council and the mayor's office will ask the police chief and solicitor to examine "the potential of a local ordinance with penalties for reckless driving through floodwaters."

Gillian said all pumping stations were operational during the storm, and that the elevated Roosevelt Boulevard stayed above floodwaters and served as a reliable evacuation route. He also said the city's high-water rescue vehicles responded to fires and medical emergencies, including transporting patients on Saturday from flooded areas to EMS teams in Upper Township under a mutual aid agreement.

Beach erosion is still too early to assess, according to Gillian. He wrote that a team from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection's Office of Coastal Engineering was on Ocean City beaches conducting post-storm surveys, and said the recent replenishment project helped prevent the ocean from breaching the dune system.