By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
For 30 years or so, Janet Greene and her family have visited Sea Isle City many times during the summer season to enjoy vacations at the beach.
Greene, a Cinnaminson, N.J., resident, was in Sea Isle again Saturday for a winter weekend getaway at the shore. But this time, it was snow, not sand, that attracted her and her family to the beach.
“We had to come down for our first time in the snow. I have wanted to come down in the snow for many years and we finally got to do it,” said Greene, who owns a Sea Isle vacation home on 49th Street.
The timing by Greene and her family was perfect. Their arrival at the shore coincided with Friday’s storm that dumped about 4 inches of snow and coated the beaches with a glistening white sheen.
“That’s awesome,” Greene exclaimed of the snow covering the beaches, dunes and pathways.
Greene was joined by her sons, Cameron and Noah, and nieces Chelsie Greening and Emma Tatta. All of them were bundled up in heavy coats, hats or hoods, scarves and gloves.
“This is my cold crew,” Green joked while pointing toward her sons and nieces. “We love the off-season.”
With very few other people venturing outside in the bitter cold, Greene and her family had the Promenade all to themselves during an afternoon stroll along the oceanfront walkway.
Sea Isle took on an eerie, ghost-town feel in the storm’s aftermath. The beaches, Promenade and downtown shopping district were virtually deserted.
“It’s cold and windy, so everyone stayed inside,” said Mike Jargowsky, Sea Isle’s emergency management coordinator.
Jargowsky estimated that the storm blanketed Sea Isle with 4 to 4½ inches of snow. He noted that about 3 inches of snow was already on the ground Friday when another band of snow rolled in to add perhaps another inch or so.
Icy conditions, slippery roads and wind gusts combined with the snow to create a relatively significant storm at the shore – what Jargowsky called “the whole deal.”
Covered by an icy glaze, parts of the wetlands entering town along Sea Isle Boulevard appeared frozen solid. Snow swirled around like white mini-tornadoes in the wind gusts.
The thermometer on a digital sign near the Promenade seemed to be stretching the truth a bit when it stated that the temperature was 25 degrees on Saturday afternoon. It actually felt much colder with the wind chill.
“It’s pretty cold,” Greene said, emphasizing the word “cold.”
Tim Grant, owner of Breeze Scooter Rentals at 4209 Landis Avenue, showed a sense of humor by building a snowman on the sidewalk in front of his business.
After Grant was done, one of his neighbors also built a snowman on the sidewalk on the same block.
“It was a heavy, wet snow. I started piling it up and before you knew it, it took on a life of its own,” Grant explained of his snowman, which he did not give a name.
Grant pointed out the irony of building a snowman on the sidewalk in front of a scooter rental place that is largely a summer business.
“You might as well make some fun out of a crappy situation,” he said with a laugh.
