Ocean City Beach Wall: Rip Currents Carved This Out Saturday

The big story along the east coast this Labor Day Weekend has been the wind and waves. Rip Current Alerts kept many vacationers out of the water, or limited how far they could venture in. It’s the result of strong wind from the east, onshore, that can be potentially dangerous. The good news is that conditions today will be better with a shift in direction and lighter winds/water flow. But in addition the undertow pulling swimmers away, the combination with the high tide also chews away at the sand.  This is not the first time Ocean City, MD has experienced this during the summer. In fact there is a long list of weather events there that I’ve linked at the bottom of this post.  What stood out started with this photo of a man with this back against the tallest wall I’ve seen in the sand all summer. Candi Wood found this at 94th Street and seems to be four to 5 feet high.

Farther up the beach, the wall seemed to extend to 131st St. Bonnie Zsakany sent this photo that must be three to four feet high.  For the record, this cliff may seem most dramatic as the water pushes up against it.

Follow Up Article:

Nearly 200 water rescues, 1 girl has died t the Inlet Beach and a man is missing after search called off in Ocean City

High Tide:

On Saturday, high tide was at 1:52 PM, which under normal conditions were calculated to be 3.4 Ft above normal. Today (Sunday) the high tide is expected to be a little higher at 3 PM calculated to be 3.81 Ft above normal. This is when the water will be the highest and most dangerous if pushing against one of these temporary beach walls. Note, it will be more than an hour later than Saturday was. And while calculated to be higher, the push from the winds and currents should be less. I still would be overly cautious and watch your kids closely.

Beach Replenishments?

According to Ocean City, there are NO replenishment projects planned for 2015. But there is a 50 year written agreement that began in 1994 with the Army Corps of Engineers. But, there are beach combers that track across the beach in the evening or overnight. That can smooth the sand and work with the natural conditions to improve conditions. For the record, there were similar photos of erosion in July, but when I was in Ocean City in mid August, it was not noticeable. There is a natural order in the ebb and flow that can repair the and sand on its own.  Also, the conditions of the sand can vary across the wide array of over 140 blocks of OCMD.

 

Have you seen this? Have photos from other other locations or more info to add to the story, please share.

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