Heavy machines have been brought in, and it's a race against the clock to try to repair the beach bar and tiki bar at LandShark Bar & Grill in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

The tiki bar opened only a few weeks ago, but the rough surf caused by Hurricane Erin last week pounded the decking, knocked over pillars, and flooded both bars ahead of Labor Day weekend.

"I feel bad. I'm actually a bar owner myself in Jenkintown, PA, and I couldn't imagine not being open for one of the biggest weekends of the year," said Mark Cole, who has been to the bar before.

Officials say Atlantic City lost about five feet of new sand at its uptown beaches in front of the Hard Rock and Resorts casinos, even though the storm never made landfall.

"It's just amazing that it didn't hit land but still caused that much destruction," Cole said.

In Ocean City, Diane Burton and other beachgoers also have a little less real estate on the sand.

"This beach is short anyway, but seeing today with the step down, it was pretty surprising," Burton said.

Some beach access ramps remain closed at 5th Street, and steep cliffs have formed after the rough surf ate away at the dunes and eroded the shoreline. Burton still found a spot to soak up the sun.

"Great breeze, it seems so quiet and calm, very relaxing," said Burton, who got a jumpstart on the holiday weekend.

"We have certain beaches where you have sandbars that developed from all that sand moving with that storm and beaches where you can go pretty far out and you're still only knee deep because of all that sand washing out there," said Ocean City Beach Patrol Capt. Paul Boardman.

Boardman said the hardest hit area was from 5th to 9th streets, but the city is getting back to normal as thousands of people start filling the beaches to mark the unofficial end of summer.

"The city came in and did a great job mitigating all of that sand loss and doing their best to make it a hospitable place for this weekend coming up," Boardman said.

After days of high rip current risks, the water was much calmer Wednesday, but Boardman said the message remains the same as we head into the holiday weekend — only swim in front of a lifeguard.