Shore Officials begin cleanup from Nor’easter

We now enter day three of the first major storm of 2017 with the Nor'easter coming in over the weekend and tapering off by Tuesday evening, but the cleanup from what some of the heavy winds caused is just underway at the shore.

Rainfall totals from this storm eclipsed 2 inches in parts of coastal Ocean County, while wind gusts ranged in upwards of 60 mph causing moderate flooding and severe beach erosion in many locations across the entire Jersey Shore, says Meteorologist Dan Zarrow.

In Toms River, Office of Emergency Management Coordinator Paul Daley confirms that the impact from Monday's heavy wind gusts and rainfall caused severe damage on the beaches.

"50 to 75-percent of the dunes are gone," said Daley. "There's also some minor damage to the stairs that go over the dunes."

The ocean waters started to subside over the course of the overnight hours, he adds, especially in regards to the windy conditions but there remains a substantial amount of beach erosion.

As scattered power outages dwindle from the storm caused in large part by the wind, Daley explains that the public works crews remain on scene assessing the damage by the beaches and elsewhere.

"The public works were out all day yesterday staying on top of any trees that were down in the roadways," said Daley.

He adds that outside reported flooding in some areas including in the Townships Silverton section, he didn't see any major damages elsewhere being reported.

Public works crews will be out there again on Tuesday to clear sand of the roads by the beaches, clean up the boardwalks and the beaches themselves.

Other crews will be out there as well assessing damages.

"The engineer department will go out there and make sure everything is structurally sound," said Daley.

This includes ensuring the drainage system is working properly.

Contact Reporter Vin Ebenau at 848-221-8100 or at vin.ebenau@townsquaremedia.com