This morning, I was joined by several City officials as we toured Sea Isle City’s beaches and closely inspected our shoreline – and I am happy to report that our dune system did its job and protected properties up and down our island. 

 Unfortunately, we did have some beach erosion; but overall our beaches are not nearly as bad as we initially feared. There are, however, some areas where the dunes were damaged and the beach entrances were cut-off, which resulted in some dunes having cliff-like faces on their eastern sides.  

 The good news is that not all of our shoreline was negatively impacted by the storm.  For example, Sea Isle’s north-end is still in very good shape, as is the inlet we share with Avalon.  However, the beaches and dunes around JFK Boulevard and numerous stretches in the south-end of town (particularly between 85th and 92nd Streets) did lose a good amount of sand. 

That being said, I remind everyone that some of our dunes are unstable at this point – and if you see that a beach entrance is blocked-off with fencing or caution tape, PLEASE DO NOT PROCEED ALONG THAT DUNE PATH and move on to a beach entrance that is not blocked-off.  Also, if you go on the beach, please do not approach any dunes or beach paths that have obviously been undermined. Unstable sand is nothing to fool with, because sand is extremely heavy and can shift when you least expect it. We need everyone’s cooperation on this matter, because we want to keep everyone safe!  

We have already been in contact with the NJDEP and the Army Corps of Engineers to address the erosion that took place earlier this week – and we will continue to work with them to ensure that our shoreline remains strong. In the meantime, feel free to enjoy the beaches and only use beach entrances that are open and safe. 

As always, please remember that we are one Sea Isle City and together we’ll be stronger than ever!

Mayor Leonard C. Desiderio