Route 72 causeway into Long Beach Island reopens; some energy outages persist

As shortly as Hurricane Irene upheld Sunday, Nancy Green and her
family left Flemington, Hunterdon County, in a lorry filled with a
generator and building reserve to see how their Long Beach Island
rental home had fared.

They were in for a happy surprise.

“We indeed had a worse time removing out of Flemington than
we did removing over here,” she pronounced as she swept stones behind into
the yard of her residence on 55th Street in Long Beach Township — the
only work a family had to do.

Green’s view was echoed Sunday by Ocean County residents
and emergency-management officials who had prepared for a worst
only to see a difficulty 1 whirly pass by a county and
deliver comparatively small critical damage.

Not that a county transient totally unscathed. Low-lying areas
experienced flooding and work crews contingency now understanding with “hundreds”
of downed trees and energy outages left behind in Irene’s wake, said
Donna Flynn, Ocean County’s open information officer. Officials
also had no suspicion when energy would be easy to thousands who lost
it during Irene’s high winds.

Much of a misfortune repairs occurred in western areas of the
county, where complicated rains cleared out 8 bridges and culverts in
Jackson Township, Flynn said.

Long Beach Island and mainland communities gifted flooding
in low-lying areas, though not most some-more than seen in typical
northeastern storms, pronounced Flynn. There were no famous fatalities in
the county since of a storm, she said.

A rough comment by Long Beach Township military showed
some downed energy lines and teenager repairs to some homes such as
broken windows and ripped siding, pronounced Detective Sgt. Steve Melega,
the township’s emissary emergency-management coordinator.

The story was most a same on mainland towns.

“We are kind of sanctified with a miss of critical damage,” said
Little Egg Harbor Township military Chief Richard Buzby.

The run-up to a charge saw an rare mobilization of
emergency crew and residents, with imperative evacuations
ordered on Long Beach Island and in many bayfront sections of
mainland towns.

About 1,800 people poured into 3 shelters in a southern
section of a county. Flynn estimated that during slightest 300,000
residents and summer visitors had evacuated from a county’s
barrier islands over a march of a weekend.

The charge finished landfall in southern New Jersey during 5:35 a.m. in
Little Egg Harbor Inlet, Flynn said. On Long Beach Island, wind
gusts strike 61 mph, she said. By 10:30 a.m. it was transparent a misfortune of
the charge had upheld and people who had fled their homes began to
head back.

Long Beach Island residents, however, had to wait until 2:30
p.m. before officials non-stop a Route 72 causeway and allowed
people to return.

Stafford gifted flooding in low-lying areas in a Mud City
and Cedar Bonnet Island sections, Stafford Township Police
spokesman Lt. Thomas Dellane said.

For some evacuees and many southern Ocean County residents, it
might be several days before life earnings to normal.

That’s since a whirly did take a fee on energy lines.
Utility crews were relocating via southern Ocean County Sunday
assessing damage. Jersey Central Power and Light, that provides
service in executive and northern Ocean County, had about 78,000
homes though energy in a county during 8 p.m. Sunday. Another 3,000
served by Atlantic City Electric were though power.

 Jersey Central Power and Light orator Ron Morano said
conditions in a influenced areas were “atrocious” with downed
trees, flooded roads and singular access. He  wouldn’t assume on
when energy would be easy to a influenced homes.

“It’s satisfactory to contend it will be several days. we don’t know how
many, though several days,” he said.

While a whirly valid anticlimactic, emergency-management
officials pronounced it served to uncover that puncture formulation finished over
the final decade has been effective.

Buzby pronounced his department’s 30-plus military officers worked
smoothly with some-more than 150 volunteers, including glow and EMS
personnel. Other volunteers helped male a puncture preserve at
Pinelands Regional High School.

“It’s rather surprising to have that many people operative so
closely together,” he said. “The approach we see it, all a levels
worked together as it should. The training and a formulation helped.
When we have an eventuality with as many contingencies as a hurricane,
you can’t devise for them all. But this worked.”

Once a whirly passed, people squandered small time allowing
normal life to lapse on a summer Sunday.

In Surf City, surfers were fervent to take advantage of a waves
generated by Irene’s passage. Men in wetsuits were literally
running from their cars to get into a roller as shortly as
possible.

Mariann and Rick Mowatt of Barnegat Township trafficked to the
island to check either their Surf City attire store Kit
Caboodle had been damaged. It was not.

“We’re in a good place,” Mariann Mowatt said. “We have a home in
Barnegat, a store in Surf City and an investment skill in Beach
Haven West. They all are OK.”

Rick Mowatt, who does siding work, had also come to Long Beach
Island to see if there was any intensity work for his business.

“I don’t see a lot of repairs on a island during all,” he said.
“Apparently a charge wasn’t as bad as they suspicion it would
be.”

Contact Steven V. Cronin:

609-272-7242

SCronin@pressofac.com