By Lauren Wanko
NJ Today
A steady rain fall pounded the beach in Belmar throughout the day. Waves crashed against the sand in Manasquan.
According to Manasquan Council President Edward Donovan, everybody’s had enough. “Everybody’s hoping to get back in line and everybody’s working as fast as they can, but days like today are really just a setback,” he said.
The remnants of Tropical Storm Andrea could dump as much as four inches of rains throughout the Garden State.
“It’s not a Sandy. It’s not an Irene. It is more, if you will, your run-of-the-mill tropical storm — not real strong winds, no significant storm surge,” said State Climatologist David Robinson.
Local officials agree this is the worst time for bad weather — at the start of the season and the weekend.
“It hurts our revenue, we run our beach as a utility and all the money that we take in goes to maintain the beach and run the beach operations,” said Donovan. “Anytime we have a bad weekend, it lowers our potential revenue for the year and it really impacts our budget.”
“For most people, you look at the year as being 12 months, but for businesses at the shore, the business year is 3 months,” said Belmar Mayor Matthew Doherty. “Without the weather those businesses are gonna suffer significantly throughout the whole year.”
The rain kept customers away this morning from the Fisherman’s Den.
“We had 10 or 12 boats rented most days this week. [Today] we have zero. We depend in this particular tackle shop on tourists,” said Fisherman’s Den employee Bob Matthews.
Still, the lousy weather didn’t drive any business in every shore shop. Farther south in Manasquan, Sweet Tease Café and Bakery filled with folks looking for a warm cup of coffee and shelter from the rain.
Said Leigh Pacyna, Store Managerof Sweet Tease Café and Bakery, “Even if it’s raining at the shore they can still come in and enjoy the shore town, just in town more.”
Flash flood and coastal flood advisories are in place throughout New Jersey.
“For a storm like this we’re not as much concerned about the storm surge that destroyed our previous boardwalk, but an excessive amount of rain. So we’ve lowered the water in both of our lakes so it will take as much run off as possible,” Mayor Doherty.
Both seaside communities ensured their catch basins were clear, and Mayor Matt Doherty says Belmar is standing by with back-up generators and pumps. Tropical Storm Andrea comes just seven months after Sandy hammered the Jersey coastline. For many storm victims, the memories are still raw. Brick resident Laura DiBiagio heard from her landlord before the rain hit.
She said, “yesterday he called me in a panic asking me to lift everything that is in the garage up at least 1 foot, it sort of disheartened me because I was just hoping that we would have no more catastrophic storms.”