Beach replenishment top of mind for Rep. Jeff Van Drew, Jersey Shore mayors after Hurricane Erin erosion
As many families get ready to spend the Labor Day weekend at the Jersey Shore, communities are still working to restore beach access after Hurricane Erin eroded parts of their beaches.
Kip Emig has been part of the Brigantine City Beach Patrol for more than four decades and said the storm cut off a massive chunk of the beach.
"This is probably more than we expected," Emig said. "You can see, I'm 6-foot-2 almost, and this is over my head."
Like many who live and vacation at the shore, Emig is worried about what is still to come with hurricane season just getting underway.
"We are back to where we were in the beginning of May, so some of our beaches, we've lost all the buildup that we naturally get in the summer," Emig said.
That's why New Jersey Rep. Jeff Van Drew scheduled a meeting Tuesday with top officials from the Army Corps of Engineers along with mayors from up and down the Jersey Shore to discuss the future of beach replenishment.
"We're seeing more hotspot erosion, and we're studying on that and did legislation to deal with that specifically," Van Drew said.
Van Drew also told CBS News Philadelphia he's committed to working to find both short-term and more permanent solutions to ensure New Jersey's beaches stay open.
"No beach funding appropriation was ever cut," Van Drew said. "We have put tens of millions of dollars, and we could total that up and show you where it went from almost $40 million on Long Beach Island to $25 million in Stone Harbor and Avalon."
Meanwhile, officials in Ocean City say their Army Corps replenishment program has been extremely successful with healthy dunes shoring up the sand and nearly all 8 miles of oceanfront open to beachgoers.
And while Ocean City is seemingly OK for now, leaders in Brigantine, like many towns whose economy is tied to the sand and surf, hope they're spared from Mother Nature.
"If you look out to where the swells are, that's how much the the beach was two years ago," Emig said. "We hope and pray that we don't get many storms."