One is the duration of the storm but New Jersey also had, and still has, the greatest percentage of shoreline that was developed, for better or worse.". "Over the past 10, 15 years, New Jersey has had a larger share of the total federal dollars going to shore protection than any other state, even Florida.". "Irene was no slouch but it could have been so much worse. "Everything is vulnerable. From the book Great Storms of the Jersey Shore/© Down The Shore Publishing A damaged house on Long Beach Island. "If this was an island with nobody living on it, overwash wouldn’t be a bad thing," says Connors. It rolled in just five years after the Garden State Parkway had been completed, offering vacationers an express route to the sand.
A damaged house on Long Beach Island. The single-family homes have been razed to make way for investment properties.
The surf curled and crashed across the island into the bay, leveling homes and spitting back debris. "The state of New Jersey has a dedicated a $25 million-a-year fund set aside specifically for shore protection," says Gebert. The storm lingered through five high tides and the final one was the worst, Connors says. New Jersey State Climatologist, David Robinson says that beach replenishment teams are battling rising sea levels. Official weather forecasts, warnings, observations, past weather, and general weather information are provided for SE North Carolina and NE South Carolina Hurricane Hazel was the deadliest and costliest hurricane of the 1954 hurricane season (Figure 1) and is the strongest and only Category 4 hurricane to ever hit the North Carolina coast. When it was over Pennsylvania, Hazel consolidated with a cold front, and turned northwest towards Canada. On March 8, 1962, a nor'easter ravaged the Jersey coast, causing damage that is still being dealt with to this day. "It was neighbors helping neighbors," says LaRosa, principal of Dennis Township Elementary School. "The community took care of everybody and I think that sense of community is lost now in Sea Isle City. Fifty years ago, Mother Nature taught coastal Jerseyans a lesson in humility, unleashing a freak nor’easter that laid waste to resort towns from Bay Head to Seaside Heights to Cape May.
Telephone poles were askew, wires were down, the wooden bridge to the mainland was under water, a Navy destroyer washed up on the beach.". Reservations are required; the museum can be reached at (609) 492-0202. A Navy warship washed up along the coast. Sand replenishment projects continue to this day, as LBI remains vulnerable to the ocean’s wrath. Hurricanes Irene and Floyd were inland flooding events that largely skirted the coast. The death toll in Jersey was 32. The home page for the National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office in Wilmington, NC. If another storm like the 1962 northeaster strikes the coast, millions of dollars in beach nourishment could vanish in hours. Roads became rivers, boardwalks were devoured by waves and some 45,000 buildings got flattened, according to National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration estimates. This was the mother of all storms.". The storm’s impact included at least five states but you could say that New Jersey was right in the center of the worst damage.
I was yelling at the reporters on TV. September 20, 1961 – Offshore Hurricane Esther caused high surf and 70 mph (113 km/h) winds at beaches in New Jersey. Watching coverage of Hurricane Katrina on TV spurred Sea Isle City native, Joseph LaRosa to write a book about his childhood memories of the Jersey nor'easter. The 1962 northeaster hit during a boom time for the Jersey Shore. August 28, 1962 – The outer rainbands of Hurricane Alma dropped 0.97 in (25 mm) of rainfall in Bass River State Forest. Leonard Connors will never forget the morning the sea rose up and swallowed Long Beach Island.
On March 8, 1962, he awoke to find the ocean swirling toward his doorstep. ‘Okay, the waves look nice but the story is going to be inland.’ ". President Kennedy dispatched the military to help with disaster relief. "You name it, I’ve been through every one of them and there’s never been anything like the storm of ’62. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Advance Local. Our journalism needs your support now.
October 15, 1954: “Hazel”, a category 4 hurricane that left over a thousand people dead in Haiti, hits the United States coast between the border of North and South Carolina. It will be a bigger loss as far as money is concerned but not in terms of community.". Historic Hurricanes from New Jersey to New England: 1634-2011 A very large though not intense hurricane is bearing down on the mid-Atlantic coastline as I write this Saturday morning August 27, 2011. In the wake of the tempest, the Army Corps of Engineers launched an unprecedented emergency beach-fill initiative to boost the dunes on the flooded island. "General pandemonium was going on. "It was surreal," says Margaret Buchholz, a Harvey Cedars native whose book, "Great Storms of the Jersey Shore" ranks the 1962 northeaster alongside a 1944 hurricane as one of the state’s defining weather events. Registration on or use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement, Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement, and Your California Privacy Rights (each updated 1/1/20).
It is considered the worst storm in modern history. "It unfortunately happened to coincide with the biggest northeaster that anybody experienced up to that point in the 20th century. We were really lucky. "The shore is better protected today than it was in 1962 but there is a storm out there that’s capable of overwhelming anything that we put in," said Jeff Gebert, the chief of coastal planning with the Army Corps of Engineers Philadelphia District.