About a century ago, Deal Lake was open to the ocean. During Hurricane Sandy, the two bodies of water met up again.
On Monday night, the ocean flowed over Ocean Ave. and flooded into the lake, in the area near the Deal Lake flume. Massive amounts of sand also were dumped onto Ocean Ave. as well as into the eastern end of the lake.
In one section, a new peninsula of sand jutted out into Deal Lake [above]. Clean-up crews were working on Thursday to remove the sand.
Since the lake was cut off from the ocean and separated by Ocean Ave. early in the last century, the height of the lake has been regulated by a spillway known as the Deal Lake flume, which is housed in a small white building at the Asbury Park-Loch Arbour border. When the flume is open, the level of Deal Lake goes down as the water flows out into the ocean.
Asbury Park city officials opened the flume to lower the lake before Hurricane Sandy, as they did before Hurricane Irene. But the storm surge was the main feature of Sandy, rather than rainwater as in Irene.
Sun staff have no independent confirmation of the ocean ever flowing over Ocean Ave. and into Deal Lake. Unconfirmed reports over the years have said that it happened during the 1992 nor’easter.
However, Sandy is the first storm event where it’s been documented. Given the historic height of the storm surge it may well be the first time it’s ever happened, certainly to the volume of water which flowed into the lake earlier this week.
Ocean water was also observed flowing up Deal Lake Drive as far as the Norwood Ave. bridge during the Hurricane Sandy storm surge.
Visit the Asbury Park Sun facebook page to see a photo album of where the ocean flowed into Deal Lake.
