Jan. 12--On the night superstorm Sandy struck, floodwaters swamped Oceanport Borough Hall -- home of the police department.
The water reached roughly 3 feet in council chambers and up to 2 feet in the rest of the low-lying building, said Buzz Baldanza, borough emergency management coordinator since 2005.
Fourteen months later, the flood-prone building remains partly unoccupied and officials are considering whether to renovate or relocate Borough Hall, Baldanza said.
"Whenever we have a serious rainstorm or any type of situation like we had with Sandy or a nor'easter, Borough Hall basically becomes an island and we can't get in and can't get out of the building," he said.
Right before Sandy struck, Oceanport police moved into the Wolf Hill School, said Baldanza, a retired borough police captain. They now work in trailers in the Borough Hall parking lot.
Oceanport Borough Hall is by no means an island when it comes to flood-prone critical facilities.
The borough is a stark example of the risk a number of municipalities at the Shore and in low-lying areas across the state face from major storms that could cripple their emergency and government services at the time residents may need them the most.
Vulnerable police stations have lots of company. The hundreds of critical facilities at risk from high waters include fire departments, first aid buildings, water and wastewater facilities and public works departments.
Sandy's extreme storm surge damaged or destroyed many of them, forcing officials and emergency responders to move to other buildings or towns, at least temporarily. The flooding also made it much harder for emergency responders to communicate with, help and rescue residents in distress.
Fixing the problems, by creating better flood controls or moving the critical facilities, won't be cheap.
New Jersey received about $14.4 billion in requests for $290 million in federal hazard-mitigation funds from counties, municipalities, municipal utilities authorities and private nonprofit organizations, according to Mary Goepfert, spokeswoman for the New Jersey Office of Emergency Management. She did not have a breakout of requests regarding critical facilities. Most of the money has yet to be distributed because "we're in the application period now," she said.
Eligible projects include: property acquisition; demolition, relocation or elevation of structures; flood-proofing; retrofitting of facilities, buildings and infrastructure; and installing generators, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
John A. Miller, flood expert and legislative chairman of the public-private nonprofit New Jersey Association for Floodplain Management, said "you think about what needs to happen after a disaster," including flooding and wind damage. "How do you keep your citizens safe and in contact and informed, and how do you provide services to those people?
"It takes perseverance, takes time," he said. "It takes getting things better so that when the next thing happens, you have less damage, less loss of life."
Flooding is New Jersey's most frequent and costly natural hazard, with major floods affecting parts of the state eight times since 1999, according to government documents. The costs have reached tens of billions of dollars, largely as a result of Sandy.
Ominously, the flood threat is expected to worsen as the sea level rises, and it's possible that stronger, wetter storms will be arriving with higher water levels, according to experts.
According to the best estimates of Rutgers scientists, the sea level is expected to rise 10 inches from 2000 to 2030, 18 inches by 2050 and 3 { feet by 2100.
That leaves little margin of error for people planning to protect, elevate or build buildings or infrastructure in flood-prone coastal areas, since only 2 feet separates minor from major tidal flooding in New Jersey.
Oceanport, which covers about 3 square miles and has nearly 6,000 residents, for one, is extremely susceptible to storm surges, according to a 2010 New Jersey Coastal Community Resilience Demonstration Project report. Its Borough Hall and Police Department are only hundreds of feet from the Shrewsbury River.
A Category 1 hurricane could flood nearly a quarter of the community's parcels, as well as major roads, according to the report.
A Category 4 hurricane could flood more than four-fifths of parcels, with the storm surge reaching nearly 20 feet in the lowest-lying areas, the report says.
Many flood-prone municipalities already are fully or almost fully developed, leaving them fewer options for relocating critical facilities.
Emergency management coordinator Baldanza said "we don't have much land in town to make major changes to critical facilities, (we're) pretty much all built out. I know Fort Monmouth is a potential site for future critical facilities but, again, there's a cost factor involved."
Critical risk, little funding
In October, Gov. Chris Christie's administration announced $50 million in federal Hazard Mitigation Grant Program funds for counties to provide for local and regional resiliency projects. But requests dwarf available funding.
Ocean and Monmouth counties were awarded $10.3 million and $7.8 million, respectively, and grants will require 25 percent matches, according to officials.
In Ocean County, 37 proposed projects in flood zones totaled $58.4 million, according to officials. Most of the projects involve critical facilities and none of the $10.3 million in funding has been distributed so far.
Ocean County alone has 104 critical facilities in the federal special flood hazard area, according to the county's draft Hazard Mitigation Plan. Lavallette has 10 and Ship Bottom and Toms River have 9 apiece.
The special flood hazard area has a 1 percent chance of flooding each year, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Bob Butkus, domestic preparedness planner in the Ocean County Office of Emergency Management, said county officials are concerned about flooding of critical facilities from future hurricanes and other storms, including nor'easters like the March 1962 storm.
That storm washed over Long Beach Island, destroying hundreds of homes and buildings. It also caused severe damage elsewhere along the Jersey Shore.
Six of 14 major disaster declarations covering Ocean County have been linked to flooding, according to the draft Hazard Mitigation Plan. It's a blueprint for making the county more resilient, saving lives and reducing property damage during future disasters.
Hazard mitigation seeks to break the cycle of loss and reduce the funding needed for recovery, repairs and reconstruction, according to the plan.
Butkus said mitigation projects could be selected in the first quarter of this year.
"I will say that the county and the municipalities are trying to mitigate as much as they can on the critical facilities," he said.
Ship Bottom Administrator T. Richard Bethea said that, to some degree, Sandy flooded all critical facilities in the borough, including Borough Hall (where the Police Department was located), the public works building and water department. But water pumps and wells were not seriously damaged, he said.
"I think everything on Long Beach Island is in a critical flood zone," and borough officials worked for a short time in two Stafford locations after Sandy, he said.
Sandy flooded Borough Hall, not severely but enough to soak carpeting, sheet rock, wallboard and insulation, Bethea said. All of it had to be replaced and the borough still is working on an estimate of the cost to rehabilitate the building.
Options include installing flood-proofing or building a new Borough Hall, he said.
"It's a tough juggling act," he said. "That being said, there's a lot of other towns worse off than we are."
Beach Haven borough manager Richard S. Crane said the borough sustained around $9 million to $10 million in damages, including to Borough Hall, during Sandy and "we're still trying to get some type of reimbursement."
Borough Hall served many emergency response functions, he said.
The borough would like to build an elevated Borough Hall and has applied for funding, he said. The project would probably cost around $3.5 million.
Monmouth County critical facilities
There are 74 critical facilities in flood hazard areas in Monmouth County and 272 facilities in areas that could be hit by Category 1 to 4 hurricane storm surges, according the county's 2009 hazard mitigation plan.
Cynthia Scott, spokeswoman for the Monmouth County Sheriff's Office, provided a slightly redacted list of critical facilities to the Asbury Park Press. The redacted facilities include water, wastewater, medical and transportation facilities.
The county's 2009 plan is being revised, with a draft expected this year, she said.
The Hazard Mitigation Steering Committee, which consists of county agencies and departments, is reviewing proposed infrastructure-type projects, she said.
Once committee members decide what projects they want to fund, the proposed projects go to the state for review, she said.
Priorities will be life safety or essential service projects that will have the greatest impact on the largest number of people, she said.
County spokeswoman Laura Kirkpatrick said the county owns seven critical facilities in flood zones and considers its roads and bridges critical infrastructure.
Highlands sought about $3.5 million to relocate Borough Hall and the police station from their low-lying Bay Avenue location, according to a March "letter of intent."
The area is flooded during most moderate to severe rainstorms and nor'easters and at high tide, the document says.
"It is imperative that the municipality has a location that is fully operable" to help residents during emergencies, according to the document.
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Contributing: Asbury Park Press archives
Todd B. Bates: 732-643-4237; tbates@njpress
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