Moods are sunny at the shore after the snow

Walter Perez Image
Tuesday, January 27, 2015
VIDEO: Jersey Shore dodges a bullet
Action News reporter Walter Perez reports from Seaside Heights.

SEASIDE HEIGHTS, N.J. (WPVI) -- In our area, the Jersey Shore saw the most snow. The water is still churning and it's still very cold, but the winds have died down and the sun is starting to peek out.

As everyone has mentioned, it certainly seems that the Jersey Shore dodged a bullet.

Seaside Heights, New Jersey is one happy town today.

Take Tom Hagaman of Spring Lake as an example.

It snowed enough for his plow business to get a lot of phone calls. But it was not so much snow where it would not have been worth it.

Hagaman says, "After a foot or so it does more damage than it's worth to equipment. And you don't really make money out here."

Then you have Eddie Febus, who says in the end he is just grateful that we did not experience the worst case scenario.

"Better being safe than sorry. So it's good that they, you know, everyone stayed home, everything was cleared out. We're ready to go," he said.

Then you have Brent Lollis whose disposition is not so sunny.

You see, Brent is just moving here from Los Angeles and he seems to be second-guessing his decision.

"I was looking for palm trees," he said jokingly.

But what looks a like frozen patch of Earth to a southern Californian looks pretty good to Bill Hibell, who serves as Seaside Heights' Emergency Management Coordinator.

Hibell says, "Look at New England. They have over two feet of snow. So, like everyone's saying, we dodged a bullet. And town's going to be back to normal very shortly."

In Seaside Heights they saw a total of about five inches of snow.

A few shore towns reported beach erosion from the rough surf.

People here Ortley Beach were afraid that the ocean was going to pound its way through the man-made dunes separating the beach from the community.

Dr. Floyd Moreland of Ortley Beach tells us, "We all feel very vulnerable here, and last night was very frightening. I kept looking out of the window to see if the ocean was going to breach."

Fortunately, it did not.