Groundbreaking held for Union Beach flood control project
UNION BEACH, N.J. -- Superstorm Sandy devastated our area back in 2012.
More than a decade later, a New Jersey community will get the protection it needs against floods.
Congressional leaders and members of the Army Corps of Engineers gathered in Union Beach to announce groundbreaking on the first phase of the project.
Many neighbors say it's about time.
A yellow house with the first floor gone in Union Beach became the symbol of Superstorm Sandy's devastation.
"Very frightening. At the beginning lots of floods, water were coming," said Debbie Krauss.
On Brook Avenue, Krauss's home is the only original one standing. Everything else was leveled or torn down.
"We found out later on that it was built to FEMA code years ago, which we had no idea what that meant until after the storm," Krauss said.
She welcomes the project underway on the beach. The first phase is an 18-foot berm with a planted dune with groins along the sand to prevent beach erosion and pedestrian and automobile crosswalks.
"The impact on nature is sad, but necessary to keep the houses and the community from suffering another devastating storm and flooding is absolutely important," Krauss said.
The second phase is 14-foot walls around Union Beach.
"Flood walls and levies and pump stations and tide gates that will, all together, once completed, will envelope this community and better protect it from increasing risk of storms like we saw during Sandy," said Shawn LaTourette, New Jersey commissioner of environmental protection.
Sen. Robert Menendez and Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. say 65% of funding for phase one of the $50 million project will come from the federal government.
"These improvements will better protect Union Beach from rising seas as result of climate change or catastrophic weather," Menendez said.
"If this project had been in place at the time, we wouldn't have experienced as much damage as we had. Even today we have not protection," said Union Beach Mayor Charles Cocuzza.
Congressional officials say the project is fully funded and expected to be complete within the next five years.
Cocuzza says he hopes for calm weather during that five year period.
