This july 4th weekend the family and I went to the fireworks at Manasquan, NJ for those who have not had the pleasure it is a very family oriented event on the beach well worth attending. The only challenges, as with so much of the shore is the opportunity to legally park the car, so my car was parked over the bridge in Brielle on the mainland and we took a short walk to the beach. As you walk along the road you can see the rehabilitation work from Sandy, as empty lots are being filled in and houses are being lifted up on piles, some complete some ongoing.
Manasquan is built on the barrier island with the sea on one side and the intercoastal waterway and Manasquan river on the other. The inter-coastal used to be a series of salt marshes, linked with dykes and open water, local rivers drain into the intercoastal and breaks in the barrier island connect to the Ocean.
The walk back to the car was instructive, the tide had come in. The road and sidewalks were partially flooded, up to a foot deep in some places. The water was coming from the inter-coastal waterway where bulkhead shoreline was under water, the empty lots providing the clearest view. This was not an exceptionally high tide and there was no storm system pushing water into the bay, just a normal twice a day high tide.
This used to happen only on the highest of tides and in exceptional circumstance (ie on shore winds associated with a storm or flooding from heavy rains) but is increasingly common, for those who doubt global warming and rising sea levels visit this quintessential New Jersey seaside town at high tide and see for yourself. Their time is limited, even as they build houses on stilts. You can prop-up a home but the cars parked a grade level are still at risk and when it gets to the point that you cannot walk on the streets you now have Venice not Manasquan. Even more so as the roadway and lots flood sewage systems stop working.
The much depleted marshes between Brielle and Manasquan can no longer adsorb the additional water, and the massive cost of raising the bulkhead walls along the shore provide only a temporary solution. In the end one must question why code permits the construction of residences that are one storm away from major flooding and damage. More to the point why does the national flood insurance program cover these properties? Much as Manasquan is a wonderful place to visit, the continued development of the area must be strongly questioned. Perhaps a seawall and sluice gate system would provide a few more years for the township, but I don’t see the money for that either. The very concept of the Coastal property and development is in question, the desire is for “Ocean view”, “water front” property, as close to the sea as possible or with a private dock. Those of course are the most vulnerable properties and the most expensive, in all likelihood it is not a major storm that will render them uninhabitable, just the slow steady rise of sea level.
At a suggestion from gooserock in the comments here is a Youtube video of the flooding, no storm just a regular high tide
https://www.youtube.com/...