Bayshore Battle with Hurricane Irene: East of Rt. 36, Middletown, to Evacuate

If Hurricane Irene ends up having the teeth authorities have predicted, area leaders are saying she could chomp down hard on the Bayshore area, leaving it ravaged and under water.

For that reason and holding to the “prepare for the worst and hope for the best” credo, Middletown — the largest municipality in Monmouth County, with several of miles worth of its hamlets hugging the Bayshore — has declared a state of emergency in the township itself at 10 a.m. Friday morning, effective on its roads tomorrow. Click here for township-issued information.

And, as of 5:30 p.m, the township was given the green light to give a mandatory evacuation notice to all residents on the bayside of Route 36 (east of it) as well as the neighborhood in the Locust section of the township off of Wigwam Drive and a few other streets in what the mayor described as an isolated neighborhood in which residents could become trapped in a flooding situation.

The Locust neighborhood is on the Navesink River, and is a neighborhood that has only one road in, he said. The Navesink River also must be crossed in order to get in or out and reach higher land. "And the Navesink is expected to not be passable," Fiore said.

The mandatory evacuation status in those sections of Middletown only means that by tomorrow at noon, people will need to be out of their homes. "Police and fire trucks will come through the designated areas equipped with loudspeakers telling them to evacuate," the mayor explained. "We cannot guarantee that we will be ale to get to them if a catastrophic incicent occurs on that bayside of Route 36 (east of it), so we need to make sure they're out of harm's way and safe."

Giving more specifics on the exact location of sections of the township affected immediately by the notice, a township-issued a statement reads as follows:

"Middletown Mayor Fiore and the Office of Emergency Management have declared a mandatory evacuation as a result of impending Hurricane Irene. Areas subject to mandatory evacuation are:

All areas located between Route 36 and the Raritan/Sandy Hook Bay from the Keansburg border to the Atlantic Highlands Border.

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The following streets South of Route 36: Texas Avenue, Briarcliff Avenue, Montana Avenue, from Illinois Avenue to Pews Creek.

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Hartshorne Road in Navesink including Washington Lane, Clay Court, Tan Vat Road, Grand Tour, Indian Terrace, Wigwam Road

Mandatory evacuation is effective immediately. All residents must be out of these areas by noon on Saturday, Aug. 27. No one will be permitted to return to these areas until they are deemed safe by local authorities.

For all other areas of Middletown, it is strongly recommended that you consider relocating to a safer location."

In addition, there will be a staffed command center at town hall in operatio starting tomorrow morning through Sunday.

“We’ve had a few fleeting blows (from hurricanes) in the past, but this one, if it doesn’t change its course, is going to be bad,” said Naval Weapons Station Earle Spokesman Mike Brady, speaking of the Leonardo base, it’s two-and-a-half-mile-long pier and the surrounding area. “If we get something like a 20-foot (wave) storm surge, as predicted, it would put the whole Bayshore under water.”

The Bayshore area extends through all the towns that sit along the Raritan Bay, from Aberdeen’s Cliffwood Beach shores through Middletown’s Port Monmouth, Belford, North Middletown, Leonardo and Sandy Hook (yes, Sandy Hook is in Middletown).

Declaring the state of emergency in Middletown, said Mayor Tony Fiore, gives the township more emergency preparedness and assistance options, should Irene grab hold and take a bite out of the area as anticipated.

The mayor strongly recommends that anyone who lives east of Route 36 evacuate. He was quick to say, however, that it is not mandatory, citing that only the governor or county has the power to issue that specific mandatory evacuation edict. What Keansburg did today, announcing that residents along the bay must leave, was "probably" not the right thing to do, according to state and county rule, he added.

“We’re specifically targeting the Bayshore,” Fiore said. “Our primary concern is potential flooding. That area is prone to it even in heavy rain, let alone a hurricane. But with Irene we’re dealing as well with the prospect of downed trees and lack of power if it stays on its current track.”

As for Middletown, its own state of emergency, which goes into full effect tomorrow morning, means that people need to stay off the roads unless absolutely necessary. Police have the authority, under state of emergency guidelines, to remove those who continue to travel and subject them to fines if there's not good enough reason for them to be out there.

At Naval Weapons Station Earle, none of the supply ships are currently ported at the end of the pier.

“We haven’t had any for a couple of weeks,” Brady said. “We weren’t scheduled to have them in at this point in time, either, so them not being here is just a coincidence, not storm-related.”

There are five “fast combat support ships” for which the Leonardo pier at Earle is the “operational support base.” Two of them are what the Navy labels T-AOE ships, which are Navy ships that are now manned by civilian crews: The USNS Supply and USNS Arctic. Both are about 800 feet long.  “They’re very big and virtually identical,” Brady said.

The other three are what the Navy labels T-AKE ships: the USNS (all are USNS) Lewis and Clark, Sacagawea and Robert E. Peary. Each of those is roughly 700 feet long. All used to be homeported at Earle in Leonardo, but are now are elsewhere, since they have civilian crews and come to Earle to gear up when they are being readied to go out to sea and supply the U.S. Navy fleet.

What do you do when you have to secure a Navy base and pier? Just batten down the hatches, Brady said.

“We’re doing the types of things that anyone along the coast would sensibly do when a major storm approaches,” he said.  “We’re pulling everything that we can out of the water. Along the pier, we have rubber Yokohama fenders and when you’re talking big navy ships, you’re talking pretty big fenders … big and heavy … they look like rubbery oblong balloons, about five feet in diameter. One of the first things we do is to try to prevent them from breaking loose and ending up who knows where in the bay.  We’re securing them to the pier and, if possible, moving them inland. There are probably a couple dozen of them out there.”

In addition to that, Brady said all else is common sense. Anything that’s a floating away or blowing hazard, Earle will try to secure, just like anyone would.

In the meantime, “We have our emergency personnel identified and all are on standby,” he added. “Obviously, we’re tracking the storm; and, as it gets more imminent, we will move up to the next level of things that need to be done.”

The U.S. Coast Guard has a station on Sandy Hook. “That area (the Bayshore) is being watched as a more at-risk location,” U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Erick Swanson said. “We’re closely monitoring the storm’s trajectory, and gale force winds of about 35 m.p.h. are expected. There will be a port condition set in the harbor.  That just notifies mariners that gale force winds expected within 72 hours.”

At the Sandy Hook port, Swanson said there are two cutters docked: one is 87-feet-long and the other is 110. There are also a few small boats. All will be pulled out of the water, he said. The cutters will be moved to a safe location, possibly up the Hudson River somewhere, he added.

“As far as (recreational) boaters are concerned, we are definitely urging mariners to prepare for this storm. Prepare your vessel safe moorings or have it pulled out of water. Don’t go out on water in next few days. Be careful around low-lying areas, beaches. If the storm is severe that’s where we’ll see the impact most,” as with the Bayshore.

In Union Beach, in one of the northernmost Bayshore communities, on Thursday, emergency management personnel were out creating sand barriers.

The borough's Office of Emergency Management Coordinator Michael Harriot has, so far, provided the following information:

• An ad sponsored by the borough's OEM is currently playing on the radio, encouraging people to prepare evacuations kits

• If you are asked to evacuate, do it.

• If you have somewhere to go for the weekend, go.

• Fill your car with gas and have cash on hand, because if electricity doesn't work, ATMs won't work.

• We are working on getting a parking lot (perhaps the Bradley's parking lot on Route 36) in which boats can be dry-ported.

In Aberdeen's low-lying areas, such as Cliffwood Beach, residents have been notified of advisories via a reverse 9-1-1 system urging residents in flood-prone areas to voluntarily evacuate.

Township police have also been traveling door-to-door in these areas to request that residents leave before Irene arrives. Deputy Police Chief Rick Derechailo said that those along the bay, especially on Beach Drive in Cliffwood Beach, should very seriously consider relocating to a location further inland for the weekend.

Township police and Public Works personnel and machinery will be put in strategic locations on Saturday afternoon, allowing more areas within the town to be reached in the event of a flood.

Fire companies and first aid will also be on standby at their respective buildings, Derechailo said, in order to expedite their response time in the case of an emergency.

Stay tuned to Patch for more on the Bayshore storm emergency preparedness updates.

Matawan-Aberdeen Patch Editor Chelsea Naso contributed to this story.