Questions Raised On Ocean City's Flooding Preparedness

OCEAN CITY, NJ — Monday's events brought a perfect storm, if you will, for flooding in Ocean City. A powerful thunderstorm passed over the island before a full moon.

But Suzanne Hornick — founder and chair of Ocean City, NJ Flooding Committee, a civilian group — stayed up late Monday with other questions overloading her inbox. Neighbors and homeowners speculated whether something was wrong with Ocean City's pumping stations.

And if more rain is coming – and a significant tropical system is expected to hit the area on Friday – residents are worried that the seaside city won't be able to handle the consequences.

"Many people all over Facebook were concerned that their new infrastructure was not working in all of the remediated areas," Hornick said.

A city spokesperson did not return comment.

Ocean City officials have made some significant investments in recent years toward flood remediation. That includes the recently completed North End Drainage project. The project brought three stormwater pumping pumping stations and storm pipes to the north end neighborhood between 1st and Eight Street and from West Avenue to the bay.

Ocean City spent $7.75 million on road and drainage projects in 2018 and will spend $25 million over the next five years, according to the city website. See more drainage projects here.

Although the rain hit heavily, some remediated areas didn't drain as efficiently as they have in the past, Hornick said.

Jackie and Jerry Maydwell posted pictures to the Facebook group for the Ocean City, NJ Flooding Committee, a chapter of Higher Ground. Monday was their trash pickup day on 3rd Street and West Avenue. Garbage floated through the street, they said.

Some group members noted improvement in remediated areas though. Roseanne Monfardini uploaded pictures to iseechange.org, a website which connects communities about flooding and other environmental issues.

The pictures come from the area of the 29th Street to 34th Street Drainage Project. She believes the remediation helped significantly.

"One hour of heavy windswept rain and Haven Ave. in this area isn’t flooded," she wrote. "Cross street of 32nd is starting to flood now and a little is spilling over onto lawns."

But there were also reports on the group of visitors who didn't know the flooding was coming.

"The city needs to do a much better job when they know in advance that a storm is coming and we're going to see flooding," Hornick said, "in protecting the people by putting up barricades, signage and (sending) notifications that tourists are going to get. We all get the Code Red and all that, and that's great stuff. But we have to make sure that our visitors are educated as well somehow."

Click here to enroll in CodeRED emergency alerts.

ISee Change experts believe this was the type of storm Ocean City gets every two to five years. But there were other factors that could have exacerbated property damage.

Some photos on social media showed vehicles driving through the flood waters. A truck at high speed in deep water can push the water enough to destroy the siding of someone's house, Hornick said.

"That's why people are so upset," she said, "because it can cause thousands of dollars worth of damage to somebody's home in one pass of a truck."

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