00:00Coastal erosion continues to be a growing concern for towns along the Jersey Shore, especially places like Strathmere, where every major storm takes a toll on already fragile beaches. With wind and rain expected through the week, water levels are expected to rise once again.
00:15Our Allie Reed is live from Cape County, Cape May County, excuse me, this morning with what this next round of storms will mean for residents in the shoreline. It's cold, cold morning right now, Cape May, and those winds starting to pick up right off coming in from the ocean.
00:34Right, Bernie, Ari, it's sitting at about 50 degrees this morning. But when you're talking real field conditions with those wind gusts, the breezy conditions that we are seeing this morning here, it's going to feel more like 40 to 45 degrees here in Strathmere, New Jersey. Now, it does look beautiful behind us here. Waves a little angry this morning, but nothing in comparison to what we saw a few weeks ago when we saw that coastal storm. It was storms like that one and
01:04back during Hurricane Aaron, when we really started to see some significant issues when it comes to coastal erosion. I want to talk to Mike Jones this morning. Mike, join with me if you can to talk about what we saw just a few weeks ago. I mean, we saw some pretty significant conditions when it came to beach erosion, and that was due in part to a lot of the rain and wind that we saw here in the village of Strathmere.
01:27Yeah, I mean, it's just the rain and wind is what we worry about the most coming out of the northeast, but mainly the winds, and if the tide's right, that's what does the damage to Strathmere and the dune.
01:39Now, you guys, we're paying attention to the conditions that we're going to see throughout the day today into tomorrow and Thursday morning.
01:46Rain could potentially be a concern mixed with wind, and you said it best, depending on how that wind can kind of come and flow on shore can really be dependent on what ends up happening here in that situation.
01:59Yeah, if the tides work out right with the winds and it's high tide, that's what does the damage. If we catch it right at low tide, we don't see as much damage as we would, and that's what we hope for right now at this point.
02:11Now, we spoke to the mayor about when I was here a week ago, and his words were, if we see another potentially significant storm here along the coast, it could be maybe catastrophic for the community here, depending on flooding and those scenarios that can potentially play out.
02:28Absolutely. That's what we always worry about at this point when we don't have the protection from the dunes, is what storm comes next, how bad it is, and what it's going to look like when we're done with these houses.
02:40Some of them are low-lying houses. They're not up to the heights with the newer homes that they're building now.
02:47These are older homes that have been here probably since the 50s, the 40s, some of them that survived.
02:53So that's what we worry about.
02:56Now, right now, you could see the ocean behind us here.
03:00Around 9, 9.30 or so, that ends up being high tide.
03:03That comes up very, very close to the dunes that we're seeing here.
03:07Now, we know that last year you guys went through a beach replenishment project,
03:12but unfortunately, in the span of a year and because of the weather that we saw over this past year,
03:17the replenishment that we saw last year is kind of back to square one, essentially, right?
03:21Yeah, the beach replenishment project is gone, and it's taken more dunes that were still here when they did the beach replenishment.
03:31So we're pretty much almost at ground zero with our dunes that we have left now.
03:37Now, the other thing is that your hands are essentially tied.
03:40You don't have the funding right now to bring in more sand, and that's an issue for you guys
03:44because of storms like we could potentially see Wednesday into Thursday.
03:50And unfortunately, there's not much you guys can really do at this point.
03:54No, there's not much we can do.
03:56They could truck in sand and help protect it, but you're trucking in sand for the ocean to take the sand away.
04:03And at a cost of, you know, how much money to truck in the sand that would be needed,
04:09you're talking hundreds of trioxal loads of sand just to protect the north end and the south.
04:14Now, we know that, unfortunately, your community not able to do that.
04:17We know surrounding communities, Ocean City, they are trying to pump in that sand right now if possible.
04:23They're obviously dealing with the pier, the boardwalk there, and a number of businesses and homes over in that community too.
04:28Mike, I want to talk to you in the next hour, if possible, and with the township of Upper Township
04:35to really talk a little bit more about the conditions here and what that can really look like for you guys.
04:38So we will be communicating with them in about an hour's time.
04:42Guys, don't go anywhere as we continue to talk about the conditions here
04:45and what that could potentially look like over the next 24 to 48 hours, guys.
04:49Allie, we appreciate you just continuing to follow this story and bring us new information every time.
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