Allenhurst Beach Club should be back by summer
Structures saw heavy structural damage in Hurricane Sandy
Despite the extensive damage that hit the Beach Club during Hurricane Sandy, beach club co-manager Chris Rogers said it will be repaired by the start of the summer season.
“I’m absolutely confident,” Rogers said. “Seeing the way that our crew worked to get the town and beach club prepped before the storm and cleared after the storm, I’m very confident we’ll be more than 80 percent ready for opening day.”
City engineer Peter Avakian shared Rogers’s belief that the beach club could be ready to open by the season’s start, but also said the town had to act fast because material could prove scarce due to the widespread damage caused by Hurricane Sandy.
Rogers was at the beach club in Mr. C’s restaurant [pictured above] when Hurricane Sandy hit, and witnessed the storm’s arrival before he decided it was too dangerous to stay. He watched as the first wind blew in the bay windows and a wave came right up to the building, which was shaking.
The bulk of the damage wasn’t from the wind or water, but the debris carried by the water, Rogers said.
“During the tidal surge, waves were coming like battering rams,” he said. “I saw telephone poles hitting the seawall, big logs just tossed by the ocean. On our east-west and north-south jetties, the tips of both lost rocks due to the storm. And these rocks were eight to 10 tons each, and they were thrown 60 feet, 70 feet, or more,” said Rogers.
Inside the beach club, “it looks like a bomb went off,” Rogers said. Shattered glass can be found all over, and there is extensive structural damage to the building and the seawall. The snack bar [pictured at right] on the east side has been completely destroyed, and the bandstand was demolished.
The umbrella deck shack’s interior walls were all blown out, Rogers said. The pump room for the pool system’s seawall has cracked, and there’s extensive water damage to the room housing the electric system.
The borough has nearly met its first goal of cleaning the debris in the beach area and around town, Rogers said. The Department of Public Works and Burke Construction of Ocean Township aided with heavy construction equipment.
Rogers and the rest of the beach club staff are waiting for reports from town engineers and architects on the extent of the damage before they start to plan the rebuilding efforts for the beach club. They hope to make the club strong enough to withstand future storms.
