NORTH WILDWOOD, N.J. — A New Jersey shore town locked in a legal battle with the state over tens of millions of dollars it has spent trying — mostly in vain — to hold back the ocean now is more vulnerable than ever.
A recent winter storm destroyed part of the sand dunes in North Wildwood, leaving tiny piles about the size of a child’s sand castle to protect a popular resort town with $2.5 billion worth of private property, and at least that much in government buildings and infrastructure.
v, while the city is suing to recoup the $30 million it has spent trucking sand to the site for over a decade.
While they wait for a judge to sort things out amid climate change that brings rising sea levels and more intense storms, North Wildwood’s plight is a stark reminder that in the man vs. nature battle, in the long run, nature usually wins.“This is the most vulnerable we have ever been,” Mayor Patrick Rosenello said. “It doesn’t even take a storm anymore to threaten us. On most regular high tides, the water comes up and through where this dune used to be.”
He walked along the beach where the surging surf punched a hole in the dunes, completely obliterating them for about 20 feet. On either side, all that remained were sand piles that barely reached his knees. Elsewhere along the beachfront, dunes that had been about 18 feet (5.5 meters) high last summer were less than half that height — and much lower than that in numerous places.
Previously, the city said it has spent $21 million trucking in sand for emergency repairs to its beaches. That has since risen to $30 million, Rosenello said.
But trucking in sand is no longer an option, the mayor said, adding that erosion has created choke points along the beach that are too narrow to let dump trucks pass.
North Wildwood has asked the state for emergency permission to build a steel bulkhead along the most heavily eroded section of its beachfront — something previously done in two other spots.
But the state…
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