Abstract
Hurricane Sandy made landfall in Brigantine, NJ, USA on October 29, 2012 and left many coastal communities in New York and New Jersey devastated. In New Jersey, the damage levels varied significantly between Sandy Hook in the north and Cape May to the south. This study reports on data collected under a National Science Foundation (NSF) RAPID grant focusing on Sandy related damage in three of New Jersey’s coastal communities: Sea Girt, Bay Head and Mantoloking. These communities were specifically chosen due to their close proximity to one another and the vast difference in damage each experienced. Sea Girt and Mantoloking bracket the study area, and are located less than 12 km apart, with Bay Head located in between. In comparison to one another, Sea Girt experienced the least amount of damage, Bay Head experienced a moderate amount, while Mantoloking was severely damaged. Under the NSF funding, field data including watermarks, structure damage assessments, and scour information were collected. This data is currently being used to evaluate several different factors in an attempt to determine why Sea Girt fared so well, compared to Bay Head and Mantoloking, and why some portions of Mantoloking were nearly completely destroyed, while others were minimally impacted. Several conclusions arising from this study are that: (1) structural damage to houses in Bay Head and Mantoloking was a direct result of wave impact, overland surge propagation, and/or severe scour; (2) both Bay Head and Mantoloking experienced flooding from the bayside, although the intensity varied tremendously between the two boroughs, (3) the presence of an existing rock seawall along Bay Head’s dune line significantly mitigated storm surge propagation though the Borough and direct wave attack on the oceanfront structures; and (4) Sea Girt experienced the least amount of flooding and structural damage due to its natural high elevation, as well as its protective wide beach and high dune system. The data from this study has been utilized to validate and evaluate several storm models currently being applied to investigate the damaging effects of Sandy along the coasts of New York and New Jersey. Ultimately, the objective is to utilize the modeling techniques and assessments derived from these measurements to help coastal communities recover and rebuild from future natural disasters.
Highlights
Hurricane Sandy made landfall along the New Jersey coast at 8pm EDT on October 29th, 2012.At landfall, wind gusts of between 129 and 145 km/hr were recorded in New York and New Jersey
Upon completion of the field surveys, the collected information was categorized into three different data sets - (1) structure damage, (2) watermarks, and (3) scour
The structures surveyed in Bay Head were all located in the portion of the town that resides on the barrier peninsula
Summary
Hurricane Sandy made landfall along the New Jersey coast at 8pm EDT on October 29th, 2012.At landfall, wind gusts of between 129 and 145 km/hr were recorded in New York and New Jersey. The large wind field associated with the storm generated an extreme storm surge north of the eye at landfall. The return period associated with the observed water levels was determined to be anywhere from approximately 30 years at Atlantic City to upwards of 500 years at the Battery (USACE, 2013). Hurricane Sandy’s large diameter winds resulted in long fetches over the MidAtlantic and subsequent generation of extreme wave heights. A wave gauge deployed in the surf zone at Sea Bright, NJ by the United States Geological Survey (McCallum, 2013) measured peak water levels of +5 m and a maximum wave crest elevation of +5.9 m NAVD88 during Sandy. The data suggest that wave set-up added approximately 1.5 m to the storm surge along the open ocean coast
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