When the recent “Veterans Day Storm” slammed the east coast November 11-15, some Cape May County island homeowners suffered water damage and wind damage to their properties. For most, it was business as usual and they cleaned up the mess and moved on. It’s life at the shore for those in the few scattered low-lying streets in Wildwood, North Wildwood, and West Wildwood.
The beaches are another story. So that local governments could score Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) money, New Jersey Governor Corzine obligingly declared a state of emergency. The damage to Cape May County, originally ballparked at $89 million, was determined to actually be $27.3 million. Those beach erosion figures are based on $10.40 per cubic yard of sand to be replaced. Sand for dunes is calculated up to $20 per cubic yard.
The bigger question here is whether the U.S. government should be subsidizing beaches. Is it fair to someone living in Iowa to pay for beaches in Avalon rimmed with $4 million vacation homes?
What would homeowners who cry for FEMA beach funds in their communities think if the federal government started funding ski resorts? Heck, they want snow by Thanksgiving to have a good year. Should we be subsidizing snowmaking operations at the hundreds of ski slopes throughout the U.S.? Let’s take it a step further and put refrigeration lines under each ski slope. That’ll make the millions of American skiers happy.
While we’re at it, why not have FEMA subsidize all the golf courses in America? In a drought, ship in tanker trucks of fresh water from the Great Lakes and major rivers. That would please the 24 million Americans who play golf. They want lush green golf courses, not those spotted with burned out patches of grass.
Do you see my point?
With oceans rising as the Arctic, Greenland, and Antarctic melt, the beach erosion problem has intensified. Many local shore towns will be doing two beach replenishment projects this year. Ten years from now, it may necessitate three or four a year, which isn’t going to happen. FEMA will finally say, “No Mas”.
So it’s time to be proactive.
Where beaches habitually wash out in storms, it is time to rip rap with massive walls of boulders, much like the seawalls recently constructed at the north end of both North Wildwood and Avalon at the inlets. FEMA should offer to pay for the rip rapping of the ocean. Sure it means less beaches, but once the seawalls are built, the beaches will come and go. After all, beaches are always in transit. It’s just in the last 100 years that civilization decided they’d try to tame Mother Nature.
There will always be plenty of beaches in Cape May County, but people will have to search them out. Here today, gone tomorrow, but another beach pops up a mile away. And certain beaches, like Wildwood, which is over 1,000 feet in depth, will always be there.
Like it or not, the days of FEMA beach handouts are numbered. As they should be.
- Mountain Man