For some beach towns along the Jersey Shore, keeping people out of the water because of the danger from rip currents is the biggest challenge created by Hurricane Erin.

Other towns are dealing with flooding and significant beach erosion. Streets were flooded throughout Long Beach Island. Water came onto the beachheads in Belmar. And waves crashed over seawalls elsewhere along the Shore.

New Jersey State Climatologist Dave Robinson says the impacts of Hurricane Erin will be felt for days to come.

“That storm really churned up the Atlantic. And it’s going to take some time for it to calm back down. So people along the coast are still going to have some high tides as we go Friday evening into Saturday, rip currents for sure and some pretty good wave heights. We had 6 – 10-foot wave heights along the coast,” Robinson said.

Towns that suffered significant beach erosion included Upper Township in Cape May County where Mayor Curtis Corson Jr. said there’s no more beach left in some parts of the town.

Monmouth Beach Mayor Tim Somers said he is concerned about how much sand was lost during the past week.

“We know for sure we’ve lost about 50% of the beach that we had about 72 hours ago. So, some of that sand may migrate back. But we know that, through history, we understand when we lose this much, we don’t usually see it come back in total,” Somers said.

“This is the third solid day of rough surf,” Somers noted. “We’ve had the beach closed now for three days like many towns up and down the Jersey Shore. … When you look at how beautiful the day is today, in the last few days of summer, it’s hard to tell people no on a day like today. But this is a very dangerous surf right now, and it doesn’t look too friendly, and I’m glad of that. But if you get caught in a rip in this, it is not an easy thing to get out of.”

In Long Branch, Stan Dziuba, coordinator for the city’s office of emergency management, said on Friday, “We’re letting people maybe get their feet wet, lifeguard stands are all open, [and the] beach is open. But we’re not letting anyone in the water throughout today.”