Toms River Escapes Major Flood Damage; Bayside Flooding Leaves Residents Angry

TOMS RIVER, NJ -- While Toms River officials were expressing relief at having avoided the kind of flooding seen in municipalities to the south, some township residents were expressing anger over the response to bayside flooding.

“Our dunes took a big hit from this storm,” the Toms River Office of Emergency Management said in a Facebook post. “There has been some minor flooding on the bayside. Fortunately, we had no breaches of the dunes on the oceanside. We have notified our contractor and will begin moving sand in this week when it is safe to do so.”

Towns in southern Ocean County, particularly Beach Haven and Surf City on Long Beach Island as well as the Tuckerton Shores area of Little Egg Harbor, had flood waters in a number of buildings. Farther south, in Wildwood and Sea Isle City, flooding was to the windows of cars and said to be as bad as what those towns experienced during Superstorm Sandy.

The National Weather Service maintains water height gauges at dozens of spots along the Jersey Shore and the one for Barnegat Bay at Mantoloking shows the water level at 2.48 feet above flood stage at 1 p.m. Sunday -- shortly after the peak of the backbay high tides. That amount falls under the ”minor flooding” category, according to National Weather Service designations. Water levels of 3 feet or higher are moderate, with major flooding occurring at 4 feet above flood stage, the service says.

Frustrated Toms River residents say it was more than minor flooding they experienced during the back bay high tide about noon on Sunday.

Marty Tellekamp of Goose Place, a small arcing road off Fischer Boulevard just south of Bay Avenue, said the street in his neighborhood flooded again, as it has with other storms and by evening the water was turning to a sheet of ice.

Photos Tellekamp took Monday morning (added to this article) show solid ice where water stood Sunday afternoon.

Tellekamp said the tides resulted in 2 feet of water on his street that was not abating as the day went on, in part because the storm drains were blocked by snow.

“Since the plow yesterday (Saturday) at 4:00, not another since,” he said by email. “The tide rises and can’t go anywhere because the drains are covered under 2 feet of water now. So here we are at sundown and the ice sets in.”

Toni Tomarazzo, a resident of the bayside of Ortley Beach, said her street -- Washington Street -- had three feet of water.

“That’s not minor flooding,” she said.

Tellekamp said officials have said a road project will improve the flooding issues along Fischer Boulevard, and that until the project begins, they will have assistance from the town in dealing with flooding from storms.

“As much as I like living in Toms River, this is a big community with known problems that they tell people they are going to address and drag it on for years,” he said. “All you see them boast about is what they do on Ortley Beach.”

“We spent our whole weekend evacuating, coming back, moving cars, evacuate, come back. Don’t promise people anything you can’t do,” he said.

(Photos provided by Marty Tellekamp show the flooding on Goose Place Sunday. Ortley Beach photos show badly eroded dunes, via Ocean County Sheriff’s Office.)