One Town's War With Weather

The sounds of Spring at the New Jersey shore. Not surf and birds, but bulldozers rebuilding eroded beaches.

As hurricane season approaches here. Many homes have been left defenseless. In the tiny barrier island town of Avalon, they remember what that's like.

Eleven years ago storms battered Avalon's beaches causing widespread damage. "It got a little scary for some of them to come down and see the water running under their houses," says Mayor Martin Pagliughi.

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"It started out with just rows of snow fence," Pagliughi says. "Put in a row of snow fence in the fall. Let the dune build up by itself. Plant dune grass in the Spring."

Eleven years and $14 million dollars later, the benefits are evident. Avalon is 700 feet wider.

"We've actually had the island migrate farther to the east," Pagliughi says.

Harry Debutts heads Avalon's emergency management team. Walk with him along the beach and you'll find in some places, the dunes are now so deep and so high, you can hardly see the houses.

But asked if residents are upset that they can't see the beach from their million-dollar beachfront properties, Debutts says, no way.

"When you go to the next town and you see homes standing on the ocean front and water lapping at the door, ask them what they think of their property values," he says. "And then ask our residents what they think of theirs. I think it works."

The neighboring town to the south, Stone Harbor, likes to advertise its beaches. But Debutts says, try to find them.

"They had beachfront damage even in the last Northeast storms," he says. "We didn't have any beachfront property damage."

But Debutts knows Avalon is still vulnerable. Come summer, when New Jersey's beaches are carpeted with sunbathers, Avalon's population swells from 2,000 to 70,000. In an emergency there's only one highway off the island.

To evacuate 70,000 people over a single bridge, Avalon estimates it will need 24- to 36-hours notice before the storm hits. But as fast as Mother Nature moves, the odds are they won't have that much time.

"We're lucky to get 12 hours notice," Debutts says. "We don't anticipate everybody's going to get off and we're going to have to deal with that."

A hurricane hasn't hit this area head on in over half a century. But Avalon is prepared. "I think we've been here long enough," Pagliughi says. "We've seen what Mother Nature can do."

Their storm plan has become a model for other coastal towns. Behind it's dunes, little Avalon is detrmined to survive—come hurricanes or high water.

By CBS News Correspondent Anthony Mason