Posted on August 25, 2025
The outer bands of Hurricane Erin tore up parts of the Jersey Shore, causing “significant” beach erosion in several towns as they head into one of the last big beach weekends of the summer, local officials said.
Mayors in several Shore towns said they were assessing the damage Friday caused by the hurricane’s rough surf and flooding.
Though the storm stayed hundreds of miles out to sea, Hurricane Erin caused huge waves and powerful sea surges at the Jersey Shore, contributing to flooding during high tide.
In Cape May County, Upper Township Mayor Curtis Corson said the town’s beaches had significant erosion on Thursday night. While the dunes were not breached, Corson said they were eroded.
“In the north end of town, there is no beach,” Corson said, citing the high water levels at the base of the dunes on Friday morning.
“There is no way to access and no way to guard” the eroded beach, he added.
Avalon Mayor John McCorristin said the borough lost up to 40 feet of space from the waterline on its beaches, which were already substantially eroded from recent weather. Though the dune system remains intact, the north end of the beach experienced the most damage.
A few cars and golf carts parked along the streets were likely underwater, but the mayor said he did not expect any additional significant property damage in Avalon.
Cape May Mayor Zachary Mullock said the city had a very high tide, right up to the dunes, but he was “pleasantly surprised” by the low level of erosion.
The city was “pretty lucky” and did not experience much damage, Mullock said.
“If we didn’t have beach replenishment in Cape May that water would’ve been in our streets for sure,” Mullock said.
In Ocean County, Bay Head Mayor William Curtis said the beach suffered a lot of damage Thursday night. Dune fences were torn down by the high tide and crashing waves.
Curtis said he’s “very disappointed” that so much sand was lost, shortening the beach despite the borough completing a replenishment project last month.
A few towns south in Seaside Heights, Mayor Tony Vaz said the beaches experienced little to no flooding and very minor erosion.
In Atlantic County, Atlantic City’s north-end beaches were battered by the storm, losing heavy amounts of sand that had been added in a $40 million fill project. The work replaced about 1.2 million cubic yards of sand lost to offseason storms last year.
The beach patrol was “still reassessing the situation” on Friday, Atlantic City spokesperson Andrew Kramer said.
“As for the erosion, the city will reach out to the federal government to see how they can help,” Kramer said.
North Wildwood Mayor Patrick Rosenello said city officials noticed sand loss because of the storm in the Cape May County city.
“We definitely lost in places, but it looks like we also gained in places,” Rosenello said, adding that is “not unusual” for big storms.
The mayor estimated some sand cliffs at the beach ranged from 2 to 3 feet high.
“You have these shore protection measures, whether they are seawalls, bulkheads and, of course, dunes, and … they mitigate the damage from these storms,” Rosenello said. “These shore protection measures again and again prove their worth.”
