As a barrier island community, Ocean City is vulnerable to flooding.
By Maddy Vitale
Ocean City was spared much of the predicted flooding in, yet again, a coastal storm on Friday.
“After a year of near-record rainfall, we’re looking forward to a dry forecast for Christmas and the coming week,” said Ocean City Public Information Officer Doug Bergen.
He said the city was fortunate in that both the tide level and rainfall were lower than predicted.
The tide level at the Bayside Center topped out at 5.6 feet on the mean low water (MLW) scale for high tide at about 7:30 a.m. The National Weather Service had predicted 6.1 feet at high tide, he said.
“By the time of high tide, Ocean City had seen about an inch of rain – also lower than the National Weather Service forecasts,” Bergen said.
On Friday the area saw roughly 20 mile per hour gusts.
Despite the luck of lower than predicted rainfall and tidal surge, the combination did flood most streets west of West Avenue along the length of the island, he said.
Roadblocks remain up at 4th Street and West Avenue but the roadways are passable.
By 11 a.m., most of the waters had receded. Some vehicles navigated around roadblocks on West Avenue and 29th Street.
The storm was a far cry from the Oct. 27 storm that battered the coastline and caused significant flooding and road closures throughout the city.
During that storm, the city’s downtown streets were underwater on some blocks and traffic crawled through floodwaters on the Ninth Street entryway into town as well as heading out of the city to the Route 52 causeway bridge.
At one point the bridge was closed when it became impassable at the highest point of the storm. Wind gusts were 55 mph.
Bergen said new pumps that were part of the Fourth Ward neighborhood drainage project helped alleviate much of the flooding in that area.
The project encompasses 28th to 34th streets between West Avenue and Bay Avenue. Simpson and Haven avenues serve as the spines of the project.
“As expected, it could not prevent all flooding,” he noted. “But there was a noticeable difference during the peak tide with Haven and Simpson avenues remaining passable through the entire event. The streets there drained more quickly as the tide receded.”
He added that it was apparent that the north end drainage project was doing what it should, especially along the area around the Ocean City Primary School, located at 550 West Avenue.
“At the north end, public safety personnel stationed at the Ocean City Primary School reported that there was no need to carry students through storm waters – as was sometimes necessary,” Bergen said. “With that block of West Avenue now elevated as part of the north end drainage project, the path to school was dry.”
The city's drainage project help to lessen the flooding, officials say.
