City Manager: Long Beach Looking at Historic Flood Levels

“We could be looking at absolutely historic flood levels here in Long Beach,” City Manager Jack Schnirman said early Monday morning as the wrath of Hurricane Sandy is making its way to Long Island.   

Schnirman told News 12 in a live interview at 7:45 a.m. that this evaluation was based on some of what city officials had seen in Long Beach as the high winds and rain from Sandy make their way north.

Early this morning as the city experienced the second high tide cycle of the storm, water was starting to flood West End streets, particularly Virginia Avenue and Delaware Avenue, and the Canals neighborhood had “significant water,” the city manager said.

He urged resident, particularly those in the Canals and on the bayside of the barrier island, “to really think about taking the mandatory evacuation orders seriously and go ahead and stay with friends and family outside the city.”

Nassau County Executive Edward P. Mangano ordered a mandatory evacuation for all residents living in a flood or storm surge zone, effective 2 p.m. Sunday. On Saturday, he ordered the mandatory the evacuation of Long Beach Medical Center and all nursing homes on the barrier island, when he declared a state of emergency in anticipation of the hurricane.

Schnriman said that as the day goes on, it will become more difficult for residents to evacuate, and said the morning was a good time to leave. “The rain is slow and steady right now; it hasn’t yet picked up,” he observed before 8 a.m.. “The winds are just beginning to pick up. We want to urge folks to stay safe.”

With the full moon will come high tides again at 6 p.m. Monday, when the brunt of the storm is expected to hit. Schnirman was asked about the possibility of water from both the bay and the ocean meeting at Park Avenue, at the middle of the island, as they did during Hurricane Irene in August 2011. He said city officials expected this to happen again.

About the boardwalk and the apartment buildings and others that line it, Schnirman said that the structure is 17-feet high and the city expects 11-foot or higher storm surges. “And we’ve got real sold sand berms underneath there,” he added. “So we feel more comfortable with actually the ocean side than the bay side, which is where the flooding has typically been at its worst.”

In response to a question about conditions in Long Beach this morning on Patch’s Facebook page, East End resident Diane Denesowicz said that the high tide lapped against the dunes but didn’t touch the sand berm that was built near Pacific Boulevard and Shore Road. “Now, some pro surfers are heading out into it with a jet ski accompaniment,” she wrote.

Resident Bill Roth wrote that water on the bay side was splashing over onto New York Avenue, while residents in the Canals, on Farrell Street and Harmon Street, said that these streets were clear.

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