North Wildwood’s Emergency Preparedness website

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.

Can one prepare for everything?

Can one prepare for everything? This is a question that many ask.   The answer is both yes and no – no because there are too many variables in what the future may bring, but the answer is yes if you look at events differently.  If you prepare by looking at the components rather than focusing on the event itself you can be prepared for a multitude of different events.  The components are the common needs that will be present at all events.   We can identify them when we make our plan or checklist.  You will find the differences between events will generally fall on external or environmental issues  – the prevailing weather conditions.  Common to most events, such as an ice storm, electric outage, flooding, or other events you will have one of two options, that is to stay or leave, also known as, Shelter in Place or Evacuation.   First, look at sheltering in place which is basically staying at home as long as your house is habitable.  The main component of sheltering-in-place preparedness centers on your food and water supplies and your house being habitable.   Habitable also means that your house is not damaged by the event and you have a heat source if it is cold out and electricity or some other power source such as a generator or battery power supply.  If your house is not habitable then your option is to evacuate. The best way to evacuate is to go to a relative or friend’s home that is in a safe location.  The last resort is to go to a public shelter.  When you run the numbers there is no way that any town can provide shelter for every person that resides in it.   Probably a realistic number that our shelters can handle is somewhere between 5 and 10 percent of the full-time population.   Once you identified the core components and have determined what you need to be prepared then focus on the differences between events, which we have already identified as external or environmental issues.   You prepare for these by purchasing everyday items that have multiple uses.   For example, purchase a raincoat that is large enough to wear over a jacket or sweater so you can use it in both warm and cold weather.    Purchase hip boots to wear in flooding conditions and for your fishing trip,  Also get them large enough to wear heavy socks in the winter.   Most individuals and families will have most of what they need on hand to start with.   Probably the only thing that most will need is to add several days of extra non-perishable food supplies to their pantry.   Making a plan is simple when you consider we make plans all the time.   Most of the plans are in our minds as we think over what we need to do before we do something, other times we make checklists or as many do cross off lists when we travel or go grocery shopping,  whether it be what clothes to pack, what route to take, or what to purchase.   We like checklists, whether it be a Do then Check off the list or Check and then Do the action type of List, either way, you get the same result – that is you are prepared for what you intend on doing.   To learn more about the different things needed be prepared check out the preparedness links by clicking on the  “Be Prepared” link at the top of the page and on the right-hand column.