Flooding, beach erosion at the shore after the storm

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Monday, January 25, 2016
VIDEO: Jersey Shore flooding
Areas along the New Jersey coastline suffered serious beach erosion and flooding as a result of this weekend's storm.

OCEAN CITY, N.J. (WPVI) -- Areas along the New Jersey coastline suffered serious beach erosion and flooding as a result of this weekend's storm.

"The damage was bad. There was more debris than there was from Sandy laying all over the streets," said Sheila Wannen of Diller and Fisher.

Roaring waves and strong winds have been eating at the beaches. Four to five foot cliffs have been chewed out from the dunes on 5th Street in Ocean City.

In addition, a significant portion of a beach, recently replenished by the Army Corps of Engineers, has been washed away.

"Just a short while ago, back in November and December, that outflow pipe over here was covered completely," said Gary Hink of Ocean City. "The jetty was almost covered, and you could walk around the jetty at low tide."

Street flooding continued Sunday morning in Ocean City, two hours after high tide. But even though some areas were still under water, the flooding was nothing like it was on Saturday.

"We had to get all of our cars out of here. I was shoveling snow all night long," said Jason Pachelli. "We can't even drive around here. I'm just hoping it goes down soon."

The violent waves are an attraction to surfers. But at least one we talked to said it was work trying to catch a ride in the ocean on Sunday.

"I came cruising down the line, and I ... hit the lip right there, and then my leash snapped off, and I landed on the rocks way down there," said Mark Mason.

Throughout the day, residents counted up their losses.

Angel Dalrymple says flood waters caused a minor fire in her home in Sea Isle City.

The Action Cam was in Atlantic City, NJ.

"I'm very sad because I had a lot of nice furniture that has been passed down in the family and I've had for many, many years," said Dalrymple.

Our cameras captured powerful waves crashing down on a beachfront property in Atlantic City, tearing up the sidewalk and tossing the deck yards away.

Power crews spent the day restoring electricity to thousands of customers in Cape May County where high winds took down more than power lines.

In North Wildwood, the back-breaking cleanup was just beginning at The Gym at 10th Street where water reached a foot deep.

"So we're in the process of cleaning up, taking all the mats up, power washing them, disinfecting them and putting them back down," said owner Karl Belfonti. "It's a pain in the neck."

In a nutshell, Sunday at the beach was about mopping up and evaluating the damage.

A lot of the shore towns like Ocean City are going to have serious erosion to deal with, and officials will have to figure out what to do about the beaches that have been eaten away by this storm.