By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
Frank and Martha Savino, vacationers from Pennsylvania, looked warily at the oceanfront home at the very end of 90th Street and wondered whether it would be safe from winter storms.
The two-story gray house is perched high above the beach, but the dunes that are supposed to protect it from the ocean are so badly eroded that steep mini-cliffs have been carved out of the sand close to the home.
“It looks to me that it could be in trouble with the next storm,” Frank Savino said of the house.
This area in the Townsends Inlet section of Sea Isle City historically suffers from storm damage to the beach and dunes, but the Savinos were shocked by the extent of the erosion on Sunday.
“We’ve never seen it this bad before,” Martha said.
Fortunately, the beaches south of 80th Street in Townsends Inlet are expected to be included in the next project to replenish Sea Isle’s eroded shoreline.
Sea Isle, Strathmere and the south end of Ocean City will be part of an estimated $30 million project to restore the beaches with new sand this year. The contract for that project still must be awarded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, so it is not yet known for sure how much sand will be added, at which beaches and exactly when the work will be done.
“We don’t have a finalized schedule yet, but we expect that the Army Corps will be going out to bid in the spring of 2023 for a project to replenish our beaches,” Mayor Leonard Desiderio said in a statement.
Sea Isle is proposing to spend $2 million in 2023 to pay for its share of the beach replenishment project. Most of the cost will be covered by the Army Corps of Engineers and the state Department of Environmental Protection.
In the summer of 2020, Sea Isle’s beaches were widened and replenished with more than 750,000 cubic yards of new sand between 28th and 52nd streets in the midsection of town and from 74th to 93rd streets in Townsends Inlet at the southern tip of the island.
However, winter storms in late 2022 and the beginning of the new year continue to erode the protective barrier of dunes as well as the powdery top layer of sand that gives the beaches their attractive appearance.
Storm and dune damage appears to be the most obvious between 88th and 92nd streets in Townsends Inlet and on the popular midtown beaches in the area around John F. Kennedy Boulevard. On some beaches, even the wooden dune fencing has been ripped to shreds.
The Savinos, who live in College Park, Pa., got a close-up view of the erosion between 88th and 92nd streets during a beach walk Sunday on the last day of their Christmas and New Year’s holiday vacation in Sea Isle.
They said the erosion was even worse than what they saw during the last time they visited Sea Isle in October. The remnants of Hurricane Ian and a strong nor’easter that lingered along the coast for four days during the first week of October packed a one-two punch that caused significant erosion to Sea Isle’s beaches, pathways and dunes.
“We came down in October and it was not this bad then,” Frank Savino said of the depleted dunes in Townsends Inlet.
Most of the significant damage in Sea Isle from the October storm was concentrated on the beaches and dunes near JFK Boulevard in the center of town and in Townsends Inlet south of 84th Street.
About a four-block stretch of dunes between 88th and 92nd streets has been severely damaged by the ocean. Cliff-like faces about 10 to 15 feet high have been carved in the dunes in this area.
The city has erected barriers to prevent people from walking on some of the beach pathways in Townsends Inlet and getting too close to the dune drop-offs. Some pathways simply dead end high above the beaches.
Meanwhile, the oceanfront house at the end of 90th Street appears to be only 15 feet or so from where the dunes have been sheared away by the waves. The single-family home is up for sale, with a list price of $4.5 million.
Frank and Martha Savino immediately noticed how close the house was to the dune line and the beach below. They took photos of it on their cellphone during their beach walk.
“That house may be on the beach in not too long,” Frank said, emphasizing the word “on.”
