Strathmere Residents Wary

Strathmere residents fear stranding by storm
By MICHAEL MILLER Staff Writer, (609) 463-6712
Published: Thursday, December 15, 2005

Updated: Thursday, December 15, 2005UPPER TOWNSHIP-Some Strathmere residents fear they could be marooned by the next northeaster.A storm earlier this year undermined Ocean Drive between Strathmere and Ocean City. The storm pushed some debris onto the road, creating a hazard on the 45 mph county thoroughfare.Strathmere has two exits. In severe storms, residents can flee south on Ocean Drive through Sea Isle City or north on Ocean Drive over the Rush Chattin Bridge. The latter route through Ocean City has always been the more reliable during coastal storms - until lately."That road is washing out," Strathmere resident Elizabeth Bergus warned the Township Committee this week.The ocean and bay occasionally have breached Ocean Drive between Strathmere and Sea Isle City. Cape May County hopes sandbags will continue to protect that route.Bergus said many of her neighbors have health problems that require daily medical attention. Being marooned even for a short time could be disastrous, she said. "We have three people on chemo, two heart patients," she said. "We have elderly people."Cape May County's Public Works Department dumped rocks along the edge of the road to buffer future storms. But a permit to make long-term improvements has languished with the state for more than a year, county Engineer Dale Foster said.The county needs land-use permits through the state Department of Environmental Protection and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The county applied to the state in September 2004.Throughout the years, as the tides moved Corsons Inlet, the waves carved direct access to the tiny beach protecting Ocean Drive, Foster said. The waves consumed the dunes, the protective cedar trees and bayberry. The storms also exposed piling and a long-unused railroad bed.Now, this 100-yard stretch of Ocean Drive between the Rush Chattin Bridge and the toll bridge is in the direct path of storms. All that protects the road is a knee-high pile of rocks the county dumped there. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers objected to the county's emergency dumping without permits, Foster said."The Army Corps came down pretty hard on the county," he said.If the state awards the approvals, the county plans to build a rock seawall the length of this stretch of road. The county also would remove the old railroad bed and piling, plant meadow grass and build two wooden walkways over the rock mound.The state would pay 75 percent of the project, estimated to cost $600,000, Foster said.Foster said the DEP prefers natural dunes to manmade rock walls. But the dunes would be impractical in this case, he said."The project would clean up the area and afford the benefit to the roadway we're after," he said.

To e-mail Michael Miller at The Press:MMiller@pressofac.com