Assessing The Damage

After battering the Jersey coast for three days, Tropical Storm Ida has finally relented. Now the task of assessing the damage of a Nor'Easter that caused the worst flooding in Wildwood in years falls to the residents and business owners of the island's four municipalities.

In today's Star-Ledger (via NJ.com), MaryAnn Spoto reports that conservative estimates place damages along the shore in the tens of millions of dollars range. In North Wildwood, millions of dollars in damages were incurred, including the complete destruction of new dunes at 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Avenues.

Ung, not good. But, just imagine how much worse the damage could have been had those dunes not been finished as part of the city's $10 million beach replenishment project this offseason.

According to Spoto and Jack Reynolds of The Press of AC, North Wildwood major Bill Henfey has joined with federal legislators to petition Gov. John Corzine to declare the towns most affected as disaster areas. This would qualify towns for state aid and federal assistance in the recovery process.

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) officials are scheduled to arrive and inspect the area early this week.