BROOKLYN, New York – “Per order of the Mayor, the Mantoloking Police Department, and the New Jersey State Police, the town of Mantoloking is closed until further notice.”
The Borough of Mantoloking, N.J., a town of 521 homes located on a barrier island 16 miles south of Ocean City, was devastated by Hurricane Sandy Oct. 31. The borough’s web page reported the closure of the town after the storm’s force breached the barrier island and rendered the bridge to the mainland impassable. The storm waters washed away homes, cut the town in two, and left 139 homes unsafe to enter.
In the days following the storm, through a combined effort and with an aggressive determination, state, local and federal agencies assessed the damage and began taking steps to repair the breach.
Within two days, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) issued a $2.5 million mission assignment and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), in support of FEMA, the state’s Department of Transportation and local agencies and officials, undertook an emergency land stabilization mission to close the gap between the ocean and the bay.
With the use of about 54,000 tons of sand, 200 tons of stone, and 2,200 tons of rip rap, the critical breach was filled and the ground surface was raised and stabilized by Nov. 4, just two days following the mission assignment and days before the northeast was expected to dump additional rain and storm surge on the area.
To date, crews continue to place additional material to add further protection to Mantoloking and to lessen the impact of future storms.
The recovery mission at Mantoloking, like many of those being performed by the Corps, is a combined effort between USACE, FEMA, state and local officials, the U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Navy, Air Force and Marines.
The USACE has more than 3,000 employees from the North Atlantic Division with an additional 720 people deployed from other USACE divisions across the Nation engaged to support the Hurricane Sandy response mission. USACE currently has more than 38 FEMA Mission Assignments exceeding a total of $151 million.
Link to b-roll: http://www.dvidshub.net/video/159695/aerial-view-new-jersey-coastline-near-seaside-heights