Jersey Shore towns on the alert for Joaquin

With Hurricane Joaquin possibly headed for the Northeast, towns along the Jersey Shore still recovering from Hurricane Sandy's devastation three years ago are keeping a watchful – and nervous – eye on the storm's projected path.

Anticipating what could be a nasty storm this weekend, crews in Brick Township spent four days building up a dune on the beach to cover a protective steel wall.

In less than a day -- over two high tides - the Atlantic Ocean washed all that work away by Wednesday morning. And Mayor John Ducey said there's no sand left on the beach to try again to cover that wall again.

With Hurricane Joaquin possibly headed for the Northeast, towns along the Jersey Shore still recovering from Hurricane Sandy's devastation three years ago are keeping a watchful - and nervous - eye on the storm's projected path.

"Everything that we can do in anticipation of potential flooding or worse is being undertaken right now," Sea Bright Mayor Dina Long said on Wednesday afternoon.

She said borough officials are closely monitoring the storm and expect to know much more about its progression by Thursday.

"In the meanwhile, we're battening down the hatches," said Long, whose tiny town on the northern Monmouth County peninsula was inundated by flooding from Hurricane Sandy in 2012.

In Mantoloking, bulldozers were on standby at the oceanfront where the Atlantic Ocean swept across the narrow beach and lapped at the base of small dunes.

Further north, the beach looked similar in neighboring Bay Head, but Mayor William Curtis said borough officials feel more secure than three years ago before Hurricane Sandy. That's because the borough now has a rock wall along all of its oceanfront to protect the coastal homes.

"We feel very comfortable about our protection on the oceanfront," he said.

Where they don't feel comfortable, he said, is on the bay side. During Hurricane Sandy in 2012, the storm surge kept the water from Barnegat Bay from flowing out to sea and instead flooded much of the town.

Curtis said he's not considering evacuating residents.

On Long Beach Island, the chamber of commerce and businesses have not yet decided whether to reschedule Chowderfest, a big post-summer weekend-long event for the southern Ocean County island.

Lori Pepenella, destination marketing and communications director for the Southern Ocean County Chamber of Commerce, said her organization is working with emergency management coordinators and the business community and will make a decision when they know more about the weather predictions for Saturday and Sunday.

Long Beach Township Mayor Joseph Mancini said he feels his community is in better shape than before Sandy. He said beach replenishment by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has created wider beaches and taller dunes in most of the community.

Beach replenishment, however, hasn't reached the Holgate section - the most severely damaged by Sandy - but Mancini said crews have been pushing sand up to create larger protective dunes.

"We're hoping for the best," he said. "This isn't Sandy by any means."

The dredges that had been working on the beach replenishment project there moved out to safer waters in the New York Harbor on Tuesday, Mancini said.

In Ocean City, organizers are monitoring whether to hold the Bike MS: City to Shore Ride, an event that attracts more than 7,000 cyclists and 1,000 volunteers to raise money for multiple sclerosis.

Kevin Moffitt, an organizer for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, said the group would decide whether to hold the event or shorten the route by Thursday at 5 p.m.

In Brick Township, Ducey said he's "very concerned" about Joaquin. In anticipation of this weekend's storm, township work crews spent four days pushing sand at the Brick 3 beach to cover a protective steel wall that had been installed to prevent further erosion in the area.

The wall is now exposed again after two successive high tides and the beach isn't wide enough to get equipment to start working there again, he said.

The homes behind the steel wall aren't in jeopardy so far, he said.

"There's no danger unless the water makes its way over the sand dune and over the steel wall," he said.

Township officials cancelled Saturday's fall festival, Brictoberfest,, which includes a morning 5k and fun run, and has rescheduled it for Oct. 10.

Monmouth County Sheriff Shaun Golden, whose agency runs the county's Office of Emergency Management, says it's never too early to take precautions and have a family disaster plan.

He said he's particularly targeting people who live in flood-prone areas and urged them to stay aware of  -- and plan for - the situation before a potential storm strikes. Those residents are usually affected by heavy rains and have the highest risk for flooding.