STORM WATER
Ernesto dumped more water than you can imagine here in Ocean City. We had steady, hard rain for 12 hours. The rain along with the wind did considerable damage throughout this area, including our pond. People that only lost shingles from their roofs consider themselves lucky. The fire department's brick building lost the entire wall. This was a brick-facing covering cinderblock. Today, the wall is a pile of bricks.
Yesterday, we had another deluge, flooding Coastal Highway to the point where only one lane was passable. Route #54 was closed to all traffic. Water came up the driveways on Bahia Drive. (Montego Bay is said to be the highest elevation in Ocean City) The mobile home parks off of Coastal Highway were all flooded. I don't know if this storm has been classified, but I do know water and wind are unpredictable, so be prepared.
The pictures will show you the high tide in the Assawoman Bay. All the storm drains in Ocean City empty into the Bay, but if the tide is above the pipe carrying off the water, the water in the streets and roads has no place to go. Water seeks its own level. This is why the water came through our outfall pipe, into the pond. The tide was higher than our pond.
We mere mortal find this inconvenient and costly, but this is how our environment gets clean. The Assawoman Bay is getting a good flushing today. It needed it! You must admit people haven't done much to keep it clean.
Today I'm going to wait for the tide to recede, and then I'm going to walk around the pond and assess how much damage was done to our new shoreline.