Days of gusting wind and pounding surf have caused severe beach erosion in many spots along the Jersey shore.
Some beaches, including ones devastated by Sandy three years ago and not yet replenished, appear to have lost most of their sand. And in many places where protective dunes stood between the ocean and homes, the surf cut large cliffs into the sand, leaving drop-offs up to 10 feet.
Bay Head lost much of its sand, and walkways that once led down to the beach now dangle in midair. The beaches were not wide before the storm, and Bay Head is one of several shore communities resisting a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plan to widen beaches and construct protective sand dunes. The residents don't want the dunes to block their oceanfront views and they object to the government taking their private property by eminent domain.
Gov. Chris Christie last week called dune opponents selfish and urged people upset that the beaches have not yet been widened and dunes have not yet been constructed to knock on doors of oceanfront property owners in Bay Head and Point Pleasant Beach to ask why they haven't signed easements to allow the work to proceed.
"Northern Ocean County is the worst area in the state because no Army Corps of Engineers project has ever been built," said Stewart Farrell, director of the Coastal Research Institute at Stockton University. "No serious state work has been done either on the beaches."
Mantoloking, Brick, Toms River, Ocean City and Long Beach Island had major erosion as well. A 2-mile steel sea wall in Mantoloking and Brick took a pounding during the storm, and some of the sand that once covered it washed away. But it prevented catastrophic flooding and property damage in an area that suffered some of the worst damage from Sandy.
"The beaches suffered a great deal over the past four days," said Mantoloking Police Chief Stacy Ferris. "The wall did exactly what it was designed to do, thankfully. However, we need the Army Corps of Engineers project."
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The Ortley Beach section of Toms River lost 50 to 60 percent of its dunes and much of the sand on beaches that were already narrow before the storm hit. The town was trucking sand in before and during the storm and continues shoring up some of the most vulnerable spots.
In Ocean City, a beach replenishment project is underway — but it might not look that way. Work was completed in a section on the southern end of town just a week ago. But much of that recently pumped sand washed away during the storm.
Even in less hard-hit areas of Ocean City, sand loss was noticeable. The website OCNJDaily.com had measured the distance from a bulkhead on 58th Street to the water's edge a week ago with a hand-held GPS and calculated it at 281 yards. On Sunday, it was 211 yards.
Harvey Cedars on Long Beach Island experienced severe erosion as well, with large cliffs being gouged in the dune lines. In Monmouth County, Sea Bright experienced beach erosion, and water washed under the sea wall onto Ocean Avenue in neighboring Monmouth Beach.
