Posted on September 30, 2026
Ocean City will seek additional state and federal aid to rebuild dunes after the resort town endured its worst tidal flooding in more than a decade, though officials say the beach will be ready before next summer.
“The tidal flooding that occurred last Friday/Saturday was the worst since [Superstorm] Sandy in 2012,” Larry Brown, a senior meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Wakefield, Virginia, told The Baltimore Sun. The nor’easter produced a peak gust of 52 mph Friday at Ocean City Municipal Airport and caused widespread moderate to locally major tidal flooding. Waves stripped away the easternmost portions of dunes, leaving walls of sand 4 to 5 feet tall at some beach entrances.
Mayor Rick Meehan and City Manager Terry McGean toured the shoreline Monday. Standing before one damaged dune, Meehan had to look up at the remaining wall of sand. “The good news is the dunes did their job. That’s why the dunes were put there,” Meehan said. “If we didn’t have that dune system, the entire oceanfront would have been flooded.” Meehan said enough of the dunes remain to protect the resort from another storm, but the damaged sections must be rebuilt.
Damage varied along the beach and was particularly heavy between 60th and 80th streets.
