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Storm puts damper on holiday weekend
By M. Patricia Titus
Staff Reporter
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Coastal Point • SUSAN LYONS
A fallen tree stopped traffic in Sea Colony early Saturday morning.
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Labor Day weekend 2006 was a mixed bag by all accounts.
The remnants of one-time Hurricane and Tropical Storm Ernesto trudged through the area Friday. Though it was by then just a tropical depression, the storm dumped at least 2 inches of rain on Sussex County and as much as 4 to 5 inches of rain on coastal areas through Saturday. It also brought heavy winds that routinely gusted above 40 mph.
Grey skies and rain lingered throughout the holiday weekend and into Tuesday, putting a literal damper on what could have been one of the busiest weekends of the summer of 2006.
Physical damage was nominal, however, with storms in recent years having already brought down many of the weak branches and dead trees in the area. But there were still arboreal casualties from Ernesto — notably a large tree that the storm felled across the roads inside the Sea Colony community, as well as several others that narrowly missed homes and vehicles.
Damage to power lines and transformers was more extensive, leaving thousands without power for parts of Friday and Saturday, and briefly knocking out road signals in Dagsboro.
Property owners tended to the damage throughout what might have been a weekend focused on relaxation, chopping up the felled trees and large branches and collecting the occasional errant roof shingle or bit of siding. The entire area was blanketed in a damp sheet of shed leaves and pine needles that threatened to obscure deck and asphalt in some spots.
Though most damage was wrought by wind, it was the rain that was the obvious culprit in Bethany Beach, with floodwaters on Pennsylvania Avenue — a notorious area for flooding during any significant rain event — spreading north from Campbell Avenue to Fifth Street and beyond.
Public works employees dragged out the usual yellow barriers to block cars from attempting to traverse the floodwater, which was more than 4 inches deep at its edges and approached the knees of some waders at its deepest, even into Saturday.
Extending beyond the usual degree of Bethany Beach flooding, the pool also reached half a block to the west, necessitating additional barricades and flooding yards from both street and canal. It further inconvenienced residents and visitors who were staying in the area over the holiday weekend.
More seriously, the storm led to a flurry of calls to local emergency responders, who were called to deal with both downed trees and downed power lines, as well as their usual bevy of fire and medical calls.
For just the Millville Volunteer Fire Company, during just the 17-hour time frame of 1:09 p.m. on Friday through 5:57 a.m. on Saturday, the company was kept busy responding to a total of 29 emergency calls, including 11 calls for downed or arcing wires and three for transformer fires.
Calls peaked for the MVFC at 11 during the period between 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. on Friday, fire officials said. Many volunteer firefighters stayed on hand at local stations to ensure a timely response and then braved the worst of the storm conditions to respond to emergency calls.
To the north, Rehoboth Beach closed off its beaches through Saturday night, recognizing both the pounding waves that topped 8 feet and more, and the swift erosion they were causing on the town’s recently reconstructed beach.
Red caution tape and overturned lifeguard stands kept all but the thrill-seekers off the beach there, though they still strolled the boardwalk. The raging waters likewise kept beachgoers in the town’s southern neighbors out of the water even after the storm had passed.
Only the surfers were undeterred, as usual braving the churning waters to take advantage of wave sizes the Delaware coast only rarely sees. They lined up by the dozens at the Indian River Inlet on Saturday evening, each waiting their turn on the storm surge-enhanced breakers. State police and officials watched from the shore and bridge overlooking the popular surfing site, but no casualties were reported.
More lasting than the high surf will be the erosion to beaches — both the replenished ones in Fenwick Island and Rehoboth Beach and the dwindling shorelines in Bethany Beach and South Bethany that are still awaiting federal funding for reconstruction.
The replenished shorelines have yet to settle into their final form and will likely continue to shift through the winter as nor’easters further impact the sand — possibly bringing sand back onto the beach.
Beachgoers and property owners in Bethany Beach and South Bethany couldn’t stand to lose a single grain of sand to the rushing ocean, but they lost many to Ernesto. The beaches were further narrowed and flattened by the storm, and grow increasingly close to needing state assistance for short-term replenishment as federal funding for long-term reconstruction comes in dribs and drabs.
The damage and danger was less obvious but no less real for the area’s businesses, as forewarning of the coming of Ernesto — including some storm tracks indicating a new landfall in Delmarva — led to the cancellation of plans for some to visit the area and generally kept folks inside their homes for much of Friday.
AAA Mid-Atlantic issued a warning to members to cancel early if their plans were changed by Ernesto, lest they be charged for their full reservations.
Indeed, the streets of Bethany Beach were noticeably quieter Saturday night — but not deserted, as some ventured out to see what damage had been done and others pushed determinedly through their weekend as if nothing had happened. But it was decidedly easier to find a parking space in the town than on a typical summer weekend, let alone summer’s last hurrah, even given that some of them were under water.
Shoppers had been out in force at the Millville Super Giant on Friday morning, but most seemed to be collecting the traditional weekend groceries and supplies, instead of emergency supplies to help them ride out the impending storm. Many did take advantage of the store’s covered loading area, though, lining up some eight deep at times to wait for their turn at a little shelter from the driving rain.
There were high — and dry — points to the Labor Day weekend of 2006, though.
Residents and visitors in Fenwick Island benefited from just enough of a break in the rain to take to the town park on Sunday evening and enjoy the calypso sounds of Plenty Problems, in the town’s traditional Labor Day celebration. Beach chairs that had been relegated to shed and closet for most of the weekend were laid out for a relaxing time, and children who had been cooped up during the storm strutted their stuff to the steel-drum beat.
Even better, Labor Day itself dawned surprisingly clear and proved to be a gem of a summer day, with bright blue skies, a scattering of white clouds, slightly cooler temperatures that were comfortable rather than oppressive and nary a raindrop to be seen.
Celebrants who had stuck around despite the grey, rainy weekend were rewarded with a great opportunity to turn out on the Bethany Beach boardwalk for the annual Jazz Funeral, in which the Summer of 2006 was memorialized by local businesspeople, residents, politicians and visitors.
Despite the storm and dreary weekend overall, the event was upbeat, recovering its usual revelatory tone after a slightly more somber 2005 edition, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
However, organizers took the opportunity in 2006 to continue their charitable efforts of 2005, raising money through a new auction event to benefit Habitat for Humanity and thus help build homes for those who lost theirs to such storms.
Overall, the area weathered well the storm that was Ernesto. It served both as a reminder about the dangers of being at the coast during hurricane season and a challenge to the area’s businesses to make the best of a difficult situation.
But Mother Nature granted the area one day of reprieve from dark skies and the damp, allowing everyone the chance to make the most of Labor Day and see the summer of 2006 out with a bang.
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