(09/30/16 12:20pm) If you follow our Facebook posts you will have read most of this already. The tide gauge was found to be malfunctioning on Thursday morning causing a later than we like warning on the tidal flooding which was enhanced by the heavy rain. The tide gauge was serviced about two weeks ago and apparently during the servicing the tide gauge level was accidentally changed. Once it was discovered that it was off an OEM staff member familiar with the tide levels at particular benchmarks was able to communicate the known level to our service provider who was able to re-calibrate the tide gauge. We are confident now that the tide gauge is reporting the correct height. With that said we don’t have the correct height for Thursday morning but we have the others. Thursday night high tide was 7.40 feet and the Friday morning high tide was 7.21 feet which was about two and half inches lower. The National Weather Service has discontinued the coastal flood advisory which was for minor flooding at 12 Noon today. With tonight’s new moon and persistent N/E winds the tides are running about two feet higher than the normal 4.7 feet which means tonight the tides should reach around 6.7 feet which would put water on the streets up to Delaware Avenue and the adjacent side streets. At some of the streets in the north end flooding will reach New York Avenue. We provide these heights so that the residents can familiarize themselves with flooding at certain levels so that the next time the predictions are for 7.4 feet flooding you know that you will have to move your car and what you have to do to secure your property.
The event we are watching next is Hurricane Matthew which according to the Weather Channel should turn northward sometime this weekend and could be at the East Coast later next week. While predictions a week out will undoubtedly change several times it is nonetheless worthwhile to keep an eye on the movement of this Hurricane.