Photos taken mid- to late-morning Sunday by Erik Weber for the Riverside Signal.
The Toms River decided to greet its longtime friend, the Ocean Gate Yacht Club, at high tide following the departure of Hurricane Irene on Sunday morning.
The beach area west of the Wildwood Avenue pier and pavilion was submerged beneath the Toms River at high tide following the departure of the much-feared hurricane on Sunday morning.
Immediately after the storm broke, many area residents began making their way into Ocean Gate in order to photograph its iconic boardwalk scenes, now altered by the presence of the swelling shorelines of the Toms River and Barnegat Bay, on Sunday morning.
Sunfish Beach near the second pier at Angelsea Avenue - still standing, if a bit more wet.
Preparation was high on the minds of shoreline Ocean Gate residents as they followed mandatory evacuation warnings on Saturday, and as a result of that plus the weakened state of the hurricane, many returned to their homes to happily peel off tape and plywood from windows rather than pick up broken glass.
These five conjoined summer bungalows near the second pier ignored Hurricane Irene as if it were a light breeze.
These two borough residents went along with a joke to have their photo taken while siting on a bench at the end of the submerged second pier at Angelsea Avenue as though it were any other day.
Walking on the second pier following the storm's depature Sunday morning evoked a sense of walking on water.
Waves gently lapped above Avalon Avenue following Hurricane Irene's fast departure Sunday morning while many sloshed through the cool, brackish water to gawk and photograph at the submerged Ocean Gate waterfront.
The padre continued blessing the waterfront through Hurricane Irene.
The Ocean Gate Market & Deli did brisk business from borough and area patrons eager for a return to normalcy early Sunday morning.
Michelle Love greeted curious onlookers from the new shoreline surrounding her riverfront home.
Children, eager to get outdoors after the ongoing storm threat, played and splashed in the shallow pools lapping over the beachfront next to the Wildwood Avenue pavilion.
Jeffrey's Creek decided to give Ocean Gate Drive a bath following the departure of Hurricane Irene on Sunday morning.
How much waterfront is too waterfront? These homes near the second pier tested the theory.
County workers traversed the flooded East Bayview Avenue, giving the Ocean Gate House truly waterside dining.
As the morning pressed on, more and more families with children began to arrive and blow off the stresses of the previous few days at Ocean Gate's Wildwood Avenue Beach.
Waves shallowly licked over the boards along parts of the waterfront.
The Wildwood Avenue Beach Comfort Station remained completely unharmed by either the storm or flooding at high tide Sunday morning.
A real, submerged garden as a feature for this riverfront property following the departure of Hurricane Irene on Sunday morning.
This boardwalk resident had a quick smoke before wading off into the street for a look at what was what after the departure of Hurricane Irene on Sunday morning.
As can be seen from the upper floor of the Wildwood Avenue pavilion, the high tides following Hurricane Irene overtook the beachfront and created a new berm closer to the boards.
All images are (C) Riverside Signal, LLC and may not be used without explicit permission.
Photos taken mid-day Saturday by Philipp Schmidt for the Riverside Signal.
Owners at this East Longport Avenue home, located across from Wildwood Avenue Beach, pushed to get its windows protected before Hurricane Irene's arrival.
Hurricane Irene loomed on the horizon beyond Wildwood Avenue pavilion and pier.
The darkening sky in this photo will be one of the last images seen from the second floor of the Wildwood Avenue pavilion until Hurricane Irene passed through.
Some borough residents used their newfound wooden canvasses to taunt the coming storm.
Downtown, Linda's Pizza and the Anchor Inn remained open.
Emergency vehicles and the last Ocean Ride transport to the Red Cross shelter at Toms River High School North waited outside.
Inside, cots were set up near the front of the courtroom.
Before evacuating, some residents took time to board up their home's most vulnerable windows.
Secured watercraft and an unusually empty August weekend beachfront could be seen from inside the yacht club's second floor.
All images are (C) Riverside Signal, LLC and may not be used without explicit permission.
Ocean Gate's military troop transport vehicle, acquired earlier this year for emergency rescue operations, stood outside borough hall on Ocean Gate Avenue late this afternoon.
OCEAN GATE – Ocean Gate Mayor Paul Kennedy announced a mandatory town-wide evacuation to take place by noon Saturday.
At 6:11 pm he wrote:
“At this time there is a mandatory evacuation in place. All residents are asked to make plans to leave to a safer place by noon tomorrow [Saturday]. The shelter locations are the Poland Springs Arena at Toms River High School North and Southern Regional High School in Manahawkin.”
Directions to the Poland Springs Arena from the barrier island are as follows: Route 37 West to the intersection of State Highway 166 (just short of the Garden State Parkway entrance), a right turn onto Route 166 to the first traffic light, take a half right turn onto Old Freehold Road, approximately 1 mile on the right. The American Red Cross will supply food and water. Evacuees should bring bedding, blankets, pillows and medications.
“Those who wish transportation to these locations that will be available at 9 am tomorrow at the Ocean Gate municipal building [on Ocean Gate Avenue between East Arverne and East Cape May avenues]. Both sites are pet friendly. The [Ocean Gate Office of Emergency Management]’s temporary staging shelter will open at 7 am tomorrow. Phone number is 732-269-8614.
“A reminder to all: it is to remember to bring all important paperwork, identification, and medications needed for five days. If you choose to leave a spare vehicle behind and want to bring it to safer ground, that location is East Arverne and East Cape May avenues between Wildwood and Asbury avenues, at Willis Jones Park. For further information, Check Ch. 22 (Comcast), WOBM FM 92.7, 100.1 FM, 105.7FM, APP.com, or RiversideSignal.com.”
EARLIER UPDATES
6:16 AM – Mayor Kennedy sent the following message requiring the removal of all watercraft moored off borough beaches or on borough property:
“At this point I have issued a mandatory removal of all boats, jet skis, etc that are in Ocean Gate waters and also on our beaches. This is effective immediately. All borough activities scheduled for Saturday have been cancelled. Beaches are also closed Saturday and Sunday. Ocean Gate [Office of Emergency Management] met last night at 5 pm and went over the game plan for the storm. Special needs people, such as homebound, elderly, etc have been advised of the situation approaching and to ready to evacuate. I will be meeting this am with OEM coordinator, Deputy coordinator, and Flood assessment officer to determine our plan of action as far as evacuation goes. Once determined(this am) I will notify. We are prepared as far as generators, fuel, vehicles, etc. More to follow. OEM will also meet today at 5 pm.
In case you missed it, here are some select shots of the Ocean Gate Fire Company’s festival earlier last month. The full photo essay can be found in the Late July 2011 edition of the Riverside Signal.
What follows is a general archive of the Riverside Signal, January through December 2010, when it existed solely as an internet newssite. We are currently working on combining our archive with the contemporary printed material in a way that will benefit our readers, and expect results to begin appearing this Spring.
In the meantime, the Riverside Signal can be picked up at the locations listed on the home page, and subscriptions are available to ensure our readers don’t miss a single issue, whether they live in our coverage area or far beyond it.
Please feel free to send any and all questions to RiversideSignal@gmail.com
OCEAN GATE – This Friday, January 14th, from 6 pm to 9 pm, Girl Scout Troop 200 will be hosting a spaghetti dinner at Adrian Hall on East Cape May Avenue, here, with a percentage of the profits to benefit the Jay Marles Scholarship Fund.
Tickets are be $8 for adults and $5 for children and can be purchased by calling 732-269-9361, e-mailing decorlynn@comcast.net or at the door. A number of local business have donated to this event, and further donations are appreciated.
Ocean Gate Patrolman Marles was killed in the early morning hours of Thanksgiving by a drunken driver on the Garden State Parkway in Toms River while traveling home to his wife and two young children from working an extended holiday drunken-driving detail in the borough. That driver, Erick Uzcategui, 31, of Pine Lake Park in Manchester Township, who was arrested and charged with the crime, is currently free on $250,000 bail awaiting trial.
ALONG THE TOMS RIVER – Just in time with an answer to all those depressed over not having a white Christmas this year, St. Nick’s old friend Jack Frost arrived late to the party and dumped 28 inches of snow on the region beginning Sunday morning, December 26th, as if overcompensating to make up for his tardiness.
Coupled with wind gusts that reached 50 to 60 mph along the shores of the Toms River and over such wide open areas as sports fields and parking lots, the storm, by the time it ended on Monday, December 27th, produced rolling snow drifts reaching as high as six feet in some places, drowning homes, businesses, snow plows, private motor vehicles, and emergency personnel in a frosty scene fit more for Fargo, North Dakota than the middle Ocean County, New Jersey shore region.
Across our five boroughs, mayors mounted plows alongside public works employees, police and fire companies dug the occasional brazen motorist out of a bad spot, and in at least one borough, garbage and recycling was picked up by Tuesday as if nothing at all had happened.
Newspapers, even the Riverside Signal, were affected by the storm, as in our case when the high winds and burying snow snarled our initial plan to deliver our first-ever issue to homes across the region.
But don’t take our word for it – turn the pages to read about how each particular borough encountered and responded to the storm, and take a look at photographs of what will surely be remembered by area residents in the same way that the Blizzard of 1996 or 1992 Nor’easter recall images of a region changed temporarily by the weather.
ALONG THE TOMS RIVER – Borough communities here are going to need to find a bit more manpower and time hiding in the schedules of their public works employees and volunteers to make up for the loss of one popular county program this year.
The Ocean County Department of Corrections’ inmate community work program, which for over two decades allowed county inmates to be put to work as primary or supplemental labor on municipal projects county-wide, will be on hiatus through at least 2011, according to Warden Theodore J. Hutler, Jr.
Their collective labor force, he noted, would be utilized for internal operations in the newly expanded Ocean County Jail, located in downtown Toms River.
“I wouldn’t say it’s ending, but it’s going to be put on the backburner for a while,” the warden said last month, noting that a shortfall in the amount of guards hired to staff the new facility led to the program’s suspension in the New Year.
He added that he was “hopeful” that once a manpower needs assessment was completed later this year, at a time when he anticipated the jail to be fully staffed and operational, that the program would return as an option to county municipalities in 2012.
Boroughs here utilized the program a number of times in recent years, including for clean up and beautification projects as the replacement of boardwalk decking in Ocean Gate, autumn leaf removal in Pine Beach and the clearing of the walking and bike paths in Beachwood.
“We utilized them on a pretty consistent basis to supplement what we do,” said Beachwood Borough Councilman Gregory Feeney, who is also liaison to the public works department.
He added that the program was “a great benefit to us.”
“Initially, I had reservations of a work program utilizing prisoners in the community,” said Beachwood Mayor Ronald W. Jones, “but when I became informed I realized it was a beneficial thing to get these people out and feel a sense of community.”
After seeing the results of the program in Beachwood, he said he later utilized them in conjunction with the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 9305 in Bayville to remove a concrete floor for the installation of utility improvements.
“They do do good things,” the mayor continued, adding that with the current down economy, “everyone needs to retrofit and change the way they do business,” including researching sharing services with surrounding municipalities to cut costs.
“I feel bad, but it is what it is,” said Mayor Jones.
Ocean Gate Councilman Frank Santarpia, who was that governing body’s public works liaison prior to his term as councilman officially expiring on December 31st following a failed mayoral run, stated before the new year that with the new state-imposed two percent cap on raising taxes, the program was “a very good program for all the municipalities.”
“It has helped us, in my opinion, tremendously,” he said. “There was an awful lot of stuff that they did, such as work in conjunction with volunteers and the public works department on the boardwalk, ripping it up and resurfacing it.”
South Toms River Borough Council President George J. Greitz, Jr., whose term also expired on December 31st following a failed mayoral run, said that it was a “great program,” but that his borough didn’t use it as often as its public works department did not have a full-time supervisor to oversee the work, which was a requirement of the program.
“The concept behind the program was good, and I’m sure some other towns in the area with large public works departments probably got more use out of it,” he said. “We used them a few times, but they were few and far between.”
OCEAN GATE – This Friday, January 14th, from 6 pm to 9 pm, Girl Scout Troop 200 will be hosting a spaghetti dinner at Adrian Hall on East Cape May Avenue, here, with a percentage of the profits to benefit the Jay Marles Scholarship Fund.
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