North Wildwood Braces for Beach Erosion from Hurricane Dorian

NORTH WILDWOOD, N.J. (WPVI) -- On Thursday night, the rough surf and high winds created quite the spectacle before the sun went down in North Wildwood, New Jersey.

Especially for Candy Koeneke and her dog Belle.

"I came up to look at it and it's always amazing isn't it?" she said.

But as Dorian heads north battering the coast, officials here say they would gladly do without it.

Despite the projected path keeping it miles away, the surf will get rough.

North Wildwood Mayor Patrick Rosenello says they're bracing for significant beach erosion and unsafe conditions.

He said, "A storm like this is probably going to do a lot of damage and start biting into our dune system which then becomes very expensive to fix. People shouldn't be anywhere near the water in an event like this. Knee deep is too deep."

In fact, they've already had beach erosion this year on their north end and nothing like Dorian has hit yet.

Rosenello said, "Beach replenishment is very expensive. You're talking hundreds of thousands of dollars per block."

In Avalon, officials say they're keeping an eye on their north end between 9th and 25th Streets.

However, they're confident precautions taken earlier this year will keep most of the beach intact.

We also met Brook Koeneke. He owns an entertainment boat.

On Friday he typically takes customers out.

But with the way the surf will be, that's not happening.

He said, "The boat is tied up. We put extra dock lines on yesterday."