Tuesday, December 15, 1992 – 32 Years Ago
The nor’easter of 1992 brought ashore wind gusts of up to 90 mph. Offshore, waves crested at 25 feet. Low-lying coastal neighborhoods were inundated with up to four feet of flood waters over four days. In the coming hours, President George H.W. Bush would declare Monmouth and Ocean counties to be disaster areas, as preliminary damage assessments in both totaled almost $500 million (or about $1.1 billion in 2024 dollars).
Today, tide may turn at last
It was a tale of two shores.
As flood waters receded yesterday from sections of coastal Monmouth and Ocean counties, bulldozers pushed sand from the oceanfront main streets onto heavily eroded beaches. But in other places, residents faced further damage as stubborn tides inched up again to water-logged homes.
Meteorologists again revised their forecasts and predicted this morning would be the last high tide to flood back bays. They said winds should shift this afternoon and begin pushing water out to sea, but clouds could continue to cover much of the area.
High tides surprised Shore folk
Despite early warnings from the National Weather Service, thousands of Shore residents were surprised by the speed and tide heights of the weekend nor’easter.
Considering the shock caused by the storm, the timing of those warnings — which came at least a day before the storm for most of southern New Jersey — underlines how coastal residents need to know about winter storm patterns at sea.
“To tell you the truth, I think the lead time was very good on this one,” said Jay Krieger, chief of the National Weather Service’s Atlantic County bureau. “We issued our warning six hours before New York.”
Evacuees who abandoned waterfront neighborhoods in southern Ocean County on Friday said they underestimated the storm’s impact. Others, like Mickey Lamo of Manasquan in Monmouth County, demanded to know why local emergency officials hadn’t ordered withdrawals on Thursday night.
Lamo said he awoke Friday morning to find water lapping against the foundation of his home and his car partially submerged.
“Every little storm they’re out there with the fire trucks and sirens letting us know,” he said. “This year, nothing. I would have evacuated or moved my car if I heard something.”
“They weren’t telling us to get out,” said Jill Fisler, whose apartment in the Port Monmouth section of Middletown was flooded. “I realize that none of us were prepared for this. Our apartment was destroyed head to toe.”
Fisler explained that she and her family waited nine hours for emergency personnel to rescue them as the water rose around them to a height of four feet.
Trump lobbies; senators back bets
TRENTON – With Donald Trump prowling Statehouse hallways for votes, the state Senate yesterday narrowly approved a plan to ask voters if Atlantic City casinos should be allowed to take bets on sporting events.
Trump, who plans to “probably” return Thursday for the Assembly vote, was part of a star-studded cast taking sides on whether to place the sports-betting proposal on the November 1993 general election ballot. The commissioner of the National Basketball Association and commissioner-elect of the National Hockey League, during a recent Assembly committee hearing, strongly opposed the plan; the chairman of Bally’s casinos backed the idea.
But it was Trump who led the lobbying and attracted most of the attention, insisting that rejection of sports betting could kill casinos.
“Atlantic City is in very deep trouble,” said Trump, who owns major interests in three casinos. “The industry cannot exist if it’s not allowed to grow.”
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Asbury Park Press NJ archives for Dec. 15
