North Wildwood’s Emergency Preparedness website

Winter is almost here . . . are you ready?

As we start seeing cooler weather and the publication of early winter forecasts by several weather outlets it’s time to think about winter. These early predictions are calling for a warmer and dryer for most of the Mid-Atlantic area and this is mostly due to a La Nińa climate phenomenon that is predicted to emerge in September – November of this year. However, after checking the Internet for additional 2024-25 winter forecasts on the Internet you can almost find one to fit the weather that you wish for whether you be a snow person or a warm winter person. So what should one do to be prepared? The good thing for us, being near the ocean, is that the winter temperatures aren’t usually too low which allows one to get away with layers of clothing rather than specific cold weather wear. What about snow? During the past several years we have not gotten any significant snow, but many of us remember the times we have had substantial amounts of snow and not that far ago the ice storm in 2010 when electricity was out for many for over a week. How should we prepare? As we have suggested many times look for the common things that you need to prepare for the various weather situations and focus on them first. For example, the waterproof boots you wear when it floods will work with heavy socks in snow, the same goes for using an unlined raincoat over a sweatshirt or jacket when it is snowing. Keep it simple and no worries about clothing matching as there are no fashion rules in surviving outdoors in the winter. If you have supplies for sheltering in place for a few days you should be okay during a heavy snow storm. The major concern is losing electricity. Fortunately, unless we have an ice storm the outages are usually short and isolated in the area. Most solutions to give you a backup to electricity outages usually require a substantial investment. With all the solar on many houses, you would think that would be helpful in a power outage, unfortunately, if there is a power outage most panels are part of a grid-tied system and will automatically shut down for safety reasons when the grid goes down, so you can’t count on that solar. However, if you install separate solar panels that charge batteries and you have an inverter, you will then have limited power to keep the heat running or the refrigerator cold. There are smaller units marketed as “solar generators” which are essentially a solar panel that hooks to a unit that contains batteries and a built-in inverter to convert the solar panel voltage to house voltage. Like a generator, you simply plug your cord into the “solar generator” to get power. These units are good for a limited amount of time and a limited current draw.   An intermediate solution is a portable generator that runs on propane or gasoline.   Portable generators require routine maintenance and the storage of highly flammable fuel, something not everyone would want to do.  Lastly, you have the whole home generator that runs on natural gas or propane.  These units supply electricity to your entire house and automatically check readiness by starting up and running for a little while every week.     Unfortunately, these require a substantial investment that many cannot afford.    Whatever you decide to fill the electric outage gap in your home preparedness plan take time to thoroughly investigate all your options and look for something that is low maintenance, easy to operate, and fits your budget.

Ready or Not the Hurricane won’t wait.

With various weather outlets using the term historic when talking about this year’s Atlantic Hurricane Season taking the time to be prepared might be a good idea. Being Prepared is the single thing that one can do to ensure survival. One good thing about hurricanes is that they are often monitored from the time they are thunderstorms off the Africa coast and continuously as they become tropical storms and hurricanes. Frequently this period is several weeks. With all that time to be prepared, one would think that there should be no causalities as everyone would be prepared. However, this is not true, people continue to need to be rescued in high water, need shelter, or need some sort of other assistance. The big question is WHY? Three reasons come to mind why people aren’t ready. They are (1) the notion that the weather forecasters get it wrong and that the storm always misses us; (2) I don’t have the time to prepare, or it takes too much effort to be prepared; and (3) Why should I prepared if government is there to take care of me. We will briefly address each one of these reasons and hopefully push you towards being more prepared.

(1) – “The weather forecasters get it wrong and the storm always misses us” – Weather forecasts are a prediction of what should happen when certain weather components meet. These predictions or forecasts are created by highly trained individuals consulting an incredible amount of weather data. The facts are the National Weather Service for the short-term forecast (0 to 3 days) has an average accuracy of 90% for temperature and 85% for precipitation. Then why does it always seem the storm misses us? A big part of this notion is probably due to the fact most of us do not follow the weather closely enough. Many check the weather only once or twice a day while the National Weather Service is constantly updating and posting their forecast many times a day. When it comes to Hurricanes we have been very lucky and have not seen a direct hit in years. But there were many times when the predictions had the path centered over Cape May County and several hours out the path changed. Does that mean the forecast was wrong? It would be best if you were prepared the same for a storm that will likely hit us, as a storm that is predicted to hit us. The bottom line is that it is better to prepare and not have the storm hit us rather than wait to see if the storm changes path and not be prepared when the storm does hit us.

(2) – “It’s too hard and costs too much money to prepare” – While it is true nothing in life is free, sometimes people tend to over-engineer things. Preparedness is simply being ready for what’s to come in the best possible way you can. Basically in any situation, there are two choices – evacuate or shelter-in-place. Evacuation is knowing what is important to take and where you are going to go, while shelter-in-place is having enough supplies to get you through a period, which can be several days. In some cases, you will not have electricity. A checklist works best for evacuation while pantry management will ensure you have enough supplies on hand for several days. There are items such as a generator or solar panels with a rechargeable power supply that would be nice but for some, they’re not necessary. One should do what one can within their resources. If you don’t have a lot of money to spend the best thing you can do is purchase a pencil and paper pad and write out a plan. A plan will save time, money, and worry and will ensure you are on the path to survival.

(3)– “The Government is there to take care of me, why should I prepare?” The reality is in a major storm there would not be enough first responders to handle all the calls for service if everyone relied on the local municipal services. First Responders are there for emergencies and to assist the most in-need individuals, i.e., those with special needs or those with no family to assist them. In a city with 46.5 percent of the population aged 65 years or older, we have a larger group that may need assistance. Taking a look at the first responders, the City relies on a core group of career firefighters and police officers, plus a group of volunteer firefighters. As property values go up there are less young people who live in town and want to volunteer. Also, as the population ages so do the volunteers and each year there are fewer and fewer to count on. With fewer resources calls for service will be prioritized, and response times will increase, leaving those able to care for themselves to be handled last. Lastly, the emergency infrastructure – high water vehicles and shelters have limited capacities. In a storm situation, the government works best as an alerting agency and guidance agency. Alerting you what’s coming and then guiding you, such as evacuation routes, sheltering in place, etc.

Everyone needs to make some sort of effort to be prepared. The minimal thing all should do is at least think about the “what ifs” – such as what do I do if it’s going to flood, what do I do if an evacuation order is issued, what do I do if flood water is expected to come in my house. After you have thought about what to do jot down some notes on what you need to do, now you have the basic plan. Plans don’t always have to be a formal written plan they can be a flow chart, checklist, or bulleted list.  Resources for preparedness can be found on North Wildwood’s Ready website HTTP://ready.northwildwood.com.

Let’s talk about flooding . . .

People who have resided in North Wildwood for their entire lives generally know what to expect when a Coastal Flood Advisory is issued and how to protect their vehicles and property.   In this post, we will cover flooding, both tidal and from the rain.   To understand why we flood we first have to cover some basic facts about our location.  North Wildwood is built on a barrier island; as an island, some areas are higher than others.    In North Wildwood the elevation of the ground surface heading west starts at sea level at the beach to a higher area on Surf and Atlantic Avenues and then the elevation goes downward back to sea level at the back bay.  There is another high area in the north end around the Beach Colony area.    When looking down a street the elevation change is hardly noticeable but based on some of the water levels on Delaware Avenue the rise is more than 3 feet.   A good illustration of the elevation difference is new construction.   All new construction has to be at 10 plus one feet above the base flood elevation.     This elevation is figured using the Datum NAVD88 which is different from the Datum MLLW used for tides so don’t confuse this elevation with the tide heights we post.    Nonetheless, in new homes on Delaware Avenue, the first floors are over four feet above ground; in the same new homes on Surf Avenue, the first floor can be one foot above ground.  To learn how to figure the tide height compared to your home’s first floor height we created a document explaining it.  It’s available in the links on the left-hand side if you are reading this online,  if you are reading this as an email click HERE to download the document.

Flooding from Rain –   In 2023 flooding from rain caused the city to send a Code Red  Message 30 times.   Why does rain cause flooding?  The main reason is that the rain comes down faster than the water can drain off or be absorbed into the ground.  When it rains continuously the ground becomes saturated and the rain has nowhere to go but down your driveway to the gutter in front of your house.    The water in the gutter using gravity travels to the lowest point and in most cases is Westward until it reaches a cross-street.   At the cross-street, the water goes down the storm drain under the roadway and up to the storm drain on the west side of the cross-street.   This is called the “bubbler system” where the water that goes down the storm drain comes up the other side and will try to rise to the height of the water on the east side.   As the west side is lower than the east side the water runs down the gutter westward until it reaches the next cross-street and the process happens over again until the water reaches the last storm drain and instead of coming up the next storm drain the water drains out a back bay outfall pipe.   On the end of the outfall pipe is a flapper valve also known as a duckbill valve.  This valve is a one-way valve allowing water to exit out but not come in.   This is why rain runoff drains slower during high tide as the tidewater pushes against the flapper keeping it closed or at least a reduced flow.     We have had situations where after a rain storm stopped an hour earlier there was flooding on the west side caused by rain runoff that continued to Delaware Avenue and was not able to exit the outfall pipes due to high tide.  We sometimes get flooding from rain on the East side of New Jersey Avenue after heavy rainfall, this is caused when the amount of water trying to travel through the storm drain exceeds the volume that can be pushed through the storm drain by gravity.

Tidal Flooding –  Twice a month during the full moon and new moon (14 days apart) we get the highest tides.   Generally, none of the full moon or new moon tides will cause flooding on its own.  However, when we get persistent Northeast winds, that hold the tide back, which will cause a compounding of tides, where the tide doesn’t go all the way down and the next tide rises on top it even higher we can get minor tidal flooding.  When it’s combined with a coastal storm with winds and rain we get even higher tides.  From our experience when the tide reached 6.2 feet above MLLW (Mean Low Low Water) we started to see water around the storm drains on Delaware Avenue, sometimes on North Delaware, and even some storm drains on New York Around 3rd Avenue.  It is not always the same every time the tide reaches a certain height as the winds are different in speed and direction and there have been occasions when debris gets stuck in an outfall pipe flapper valve or the flapper valve is damaged which will allow water to come in.  When the National Weather Service issues a Coastal Flood Advisory it means the tides could be anywhere from 6.0 to 6.9 feet (Minor Flooding).  For Moderate and Major tidal flooding they will issue first a Watch and then a Warning.   The Coastal Flood Advisories will have the “Departure from Normal” for Cape May and Ocean City which will show how many feet the prevailing weather will cause the tide to reach above the predicted tide that is posted annually.   They do not post a departure from normal for every town in the county so to get an idea of what we can expect we do the following – Check the departure from normal for Cape May and Ocean City.   As we are somewhere in the middle we look to see whether Ocean City is trending higher or lower than Cape May.   Most times Ocean City is lower than Cape May so we then take the Departure from Normal for Cape May and add it to the predicted tide for our area.    Not always accurate but it gives us an idea of what to expect so we can be prepared.

Flood warnings – The first notice of possible tidal flooding comes from the National Weather Service in the form of a Coastal Flood Advisory.   Many times we will give advance notice on our Facebook Page.  If we have a Coastal Flood Warning (Moderate or Major) we will send a specific Code Red Message to alert residents of the upcoming tides.  When the  North Wildwood Police Department observes water in the gutters exceeding the curb height (six inches) in two locations in different areas of town (not in the same block) they will send a Code Red Message for either Street Flooding from the Rain or Tidal Flooding.  On some occasions when the town is crowded and many people may not get the Code Red Messages on their phones the Flood Warning Siren is sounded.  Also sometimes due to heavy rain at high tide a message for tidal flooding is sent when it should have been a message for Flooding from Rain.    To educate the public on our Facebook Page after we send a Code Red Message for flooding, we post either the rainfall amount or tide height so that residents can familiarize themselves with what to expect when they hear a prediction of a certain amount of rain or predicted tide heights.   North Wildwood has a Tide Gauge and Weather Station that can be viewed by clicking on a link located in the left-hand column of this website.  There are also other helpful weather links on this page.   If you are reading this as an email the website is HTTP:/ready.northwildwood.com.