It was a sad weekend in Atlantic City and for anyone who ever worked with John Curran of the Associated Press. John passed away suddenly of a heart attack in Montpelier, VT., where he had worked since 2006, at the age of 54. John worked for more than a decade as the AP's Atlantic City correspondent and left his unique voice, corny jokes and big heart as a lasting legacy. The Atlantic City Press Corps, motley though it was and is, was never quite the same after he left, and John never stopped loving Jersey, returning every summer to Ocean City and following its unmatchable news feed from afar. How fitting that for his final series of stories, John caught the ball from the Jersey coast, at which Hurricane Irene merely spit as she passed, landing with far more serious consequences at John's doorstep. John boarded an ATV driven by a 16-year-old to get to a small town in Vermont that had been cut off by flooding. He brought sandwiches with him to give out. John was a terrific guy, and remembered so fondly by so many people. He had omnivorous tastes, he loved Atlantic City for its boxing, corruption, pop music, crime, casinos, history, Miss America and overall general and unmatchable weirdness. He had a writing touch that was light and tight. He was a tall guy, but he never held himself over anybody. He was generous as a journalist and giving as a person. He loved his job and was always upbeat about it, finding joy and wonder in the beauty of the shore and humor in its people. He brought excellent beer to parties, and lots of it. He was always glad to see you and praised and mentored countless journalists. When I first came down here in 1995, John was truly the dean of the Atlantic City Press Corps, dedicated bunch that we were, forever stunned by the fantastic rainbow of stories, and working with John erased any thoughts of not being at the center of the news universe. John was a fantastic colleague and competitor. I have a distinct memory of returning to my office (when I had an office) after covering the same court hearing as John and struggling to write a coherent story, finally sending one that was too long and convoluted right at deadline. I then found John's version on the web, a tight, clearly distilled masterpiece with a 25 word lede that had been sent an hour before. Humbling. Might as well just run Curran's story. John covered Atlantic City with a sharp wit and gentle spirit, and although it took him some time to adjust to Vermont as a news place, he was soon immersed in its more rolling rhythms and quieter news roar. It was heartening to see how deeply people in Vermont felt about John and his reporting. They were skeptical at first but not for long. John could always get to the heart of the matter and we are so much poorer without his narrative voice. Condolences to John's "beautiful bride" Trish and to his three beautiful children, all of whom he always spoke about and loved dearly. It is a heartbreaking loss. Here's a link to a story out of Vermont. RIP my friend and colleague. 

So there's the tip of Longport, sometime in the middle of the night. The fact that I drove the whole length of Atlantic Avenue during a Hurricane event should tell you that this is so far a less than epic storm, though it's been entertaining. Beach blocks have flooded, including Kenyon Ave. - someone tell Vince Fumo, whose house is there _ and there's back bay flooding.  Some random screens in the middle of the street and a few branches, and after the high tide receded, there was sand in some streets, especially Longport. Margate beach blocks seemed more flooded than Ventnor's. The rain and wind whipped up the sand. And hey, that cascade of tornado warnings was pretty ridiculous! Still no confirmation that there was ever a tornado in Longport, I didn't see anything on my ride, but I guess it's still possible. We never lost power, but many mainland communities that people evacuated to lost power. There you go. Meanwhile, the eye is pass ing by the Jersey shore even as I write, but frank ly, it still feels like a bad noreaster or something. But the high tide should be interesting.

Here's a photo of Atlantic Avenue flooding in Margate.  

Meanwhile, I'm betting on Lucy in the g reat Lucy vs. Irene smackdown of 2011. She can kick Irene's butt any day. 

UPDATE from this morning. Locals have unanimously declared Irene and a disappointment, thought the morning surf crashing against the Pier was quite majestic and lovely. But it's barely windy this morning, and it seems damage to downbeach town and Atlantic City is minimal. There was flooding overnight, but it seems to have receeded. One Ventnor officers this morning said that if an evacuation is ordered again, "nobody will leave." Indeed, many who left went to places that lost power and where flooding was worse. In any case, I did have a hydrangea bush that was uprooted, and I picked up a shingle on the Boardwalk that had blown off a pavillion. 

Well, yeah. God Bless Dino's Yup, still open, doing a brisk breakfast and subs-to-go business Saturday morning, even as Margate police patrolled the streets telling drivers to get off the roads. I got pulled over coming back from Dino's. "Only the diehards," the police officer told me of the people left. 

Dino's owner Leo Heintzelman was predicting he'd be able to open up Sunday afternoon as well, and would be riding out the storm on Jerome Avenue with his 88-year-old mother. "That house has been there forever," he said.

Seems to me the people who have stuck around here are pretty much the locals whose families date back a few generations, and a few more newbies whose homes have stood the test of time. Some people I thought would stay have pulled up stakes (or boats) and headed to the Mainland. Still, there were joggers and bicyclers and walk ers on the Boardwalk this morning; maybe people sticking to a routine to reassure themselves.

Here's John Kenny riding out the storm inside Dino's, note the boarded up windows. "My wife packed up everything of value and left, except for me," he joked.

Cassidy McClain, the best surfer in the area, could be seen on her bicycle as usual headed to check out the surf. She and other surfers were in the w aves off the Ventnor Pier all day on Friday, a nice day to hang on the beach if every there was one. Today, of course, it's raining and eerily quiet in the streets, though I did see a surfer or two on the other side of the pier.

Irene did weaken to Cat 1 this morning, but who knows. Nobody here truly knows what to expect. Updates on twitter at twitter.com/amysrosenberg

Here's a photo from Friday night, deserted streets, kind of eerie. A thick humidiity hung in the air.

So....this is Howard Seiden, owners of Casel's in Margate, which, as you see, is boarded up but open. The bagel store was open as well! Locals this morning were either a. already gone. b. trying to decide. or c. surfing. The Margate bridge was supposed to have been shut this morning by 6 a.m. to incoming traffic, but this morning it looked more like between noon and 2 p.m. for that bridge and the other bridges leading into Atlantic City, Ventnor, Margate and Longport. "They're trying to get the tourists to leave," said one bridge toll taker. Mostly, they have. Locals are divided. A lot of concern, obviously, on the island, and most people are headed out. But so far this morning, it's sunny and beautiful. I woke up feeling scared, but calmed down with a bagel and coffee as usual (see below). Thanks Hot Bagels! The nuns from Blauvelt, N.Y. who vacation across the street from me in Ventnor left last night mostly (15 of them), and the last two left this morning. Sister Pat left me with her last bottle of wine, a nice big Barefoot Chardonnay. Thanks Sister Pat and God Bless. Thursday night felt really scary, everyone leaving in a hurry all of a sudden, but today the people still here are biding their time a bit. My kid s are now with a friend on the Mainland, (Evacuation: Egg Harbor Township), and I'm weighing my options. Some of their friends are, well, surfing. In Atlantic City, although some casino workers still hadn't been notified, plans were being made to close up the casinos by afternoon, for only the third time in history. The only precedent I guess for Irene is the hurricane of 1944, which tore up the Boardwalk. Margate never re built, which is why all the people in Margate now have to ride their bicycles to Ventnor to get on the boardwalk. Lots of activity at the boat ramps to secure boats. Scary stuff. More to come here and at twitter.com/amysrosenberg. 

Atlantic City officials were preparing to open a shelter at the convention center right at the base of the expressway if necessary. 

  Here are our friends at Hot Bagels in Margate, slinging bagels and coffee while boarding up. Take that, WaWa (closed all over the island).

Well, we felt that too down at the shore. I was sitting on a sidewalk cafe and all of a sudden, things started shifting and rocking slowly. Everybody's looking around, like everywhere, to see, is this just me? I looked up to see a plate glass of the fur shop next to Hannah G's kind of shifting and rolling. Oy!!!! That was nuts. Out on the beach, the sand "felt like jello" said Al Battaglia, coming off the beach at Dorset Ave in Ventnor. "The lifeguards jumped out of their stands because the stand was shaking." "we thought out son snuck up behind me and was shaking our chairs." Nine year old Chris Megella if Spring City was in the surf and said he felt the sand moving beneath him. "I fell on my knees," he said

 It was a heartbreakiing and  devastating weekend at the shore,  with the news hitting the beach not  even an hour after the tragic accident  Saturday that killed the four Mainland Regional  High School football players, Casey Brenner, Dean Khoury, Edgar Bozzi and Nick Conner.

 I heard about it from my daughter,  who saw it on facebook, where tributes  and condolences started almost  immediately. With so many witnesses  _ there were other cars of Mainland  football players also headed from  practice to a ritual end of summer  breakfast in Mays Landing, plus four  survivors, there was no mystery about  who had lost their lives and how. One  boy's mother was on an airplance,  coming home from taking another  child to college at the time. At the 22d  Street beach in Longport, known as  the "Mainland" beach, the phones  started buzzing on the sand not long  after the 11:45 a.m. accident on the  Garden State Parkway, according to  moms who were there. Teens started crying, talking into their phones , and then leaving, and the beach pretty much emptied, I was told. It was horrible and remains horrible. I know so many Mainland families but don't know these families personally; my own daughters, 14 and 16, know friends of theirs but did not know the boys themselves. ( Th ey were of course friends on facebook, such is the nature of this generations' connectiveness.) My girls picked up snippets and connectedness in the days following, whispering them to me at odd times...This friend of theirs "talked" to one boy in the month when he was broken up from his girlfriend, another boy's girlfriend spent the night grieving in the boy's room, small heartbreaking tributes on the boys' facebook walls capturing all the peaks and valleys of teenaged lives. I thought the moment of silence on Monday afternoon observed by broadcasters Joe Giglio and Mike Krenekon  on the local ESPN radio station, based in Northfield where one of the boys lived, was heartbreaking. Tonight, at Citizens Bank Park, the Phillies will also observe a moment of silence in the boys' memory, and about 50 of their teammates will be in attendance in their green and white Mustang jerseys. Their lives, like the boisterous chatter you expect to hear on the radio, at the ballpark, at the field, were filled with exhuberance, a football season ahead of them, comraderie and competition. All cut short. Parents here and everywhere can try to learn the lessons, remind themselves and their kids of New Jersey's law that limits drivers under 18 to one non-family passenger, the dangers of piling too many kids in the car, driving too fast, perhaps horsing around. We can cling to our kids, be grateful that they've even made it to the dinner table (and wonder if their willingness to head out to dinner with us Sunday night with their grandfather, where they might have been expected to grumble a bit, was a result of a similar impulse. Seeing a family of teenaged boys out to dinner that night made it plain. There but... Bob Coffey, the Mainland coach, who organizes the end of summer breakfast every year, is no doubt personally devastated. But in the end, it was tragic and random, taking a curve too fast on a summer's day, running into an unexpected backup of cars, the rollover, and you can only pray, like the facebook tribute page that collected tens of thousands of likes in just a day or so, that the boys will rest in peace, will never be forgotten, and their families, friends and communities can find comfort in their love for the boys, for their teammates, and for all of their children. 

The Mainland Regional Community Partnership has established a fund to help the families pay for funerals and for establishing ways to honor their memories in the future. Donations may be sent to MRCP Special Fund, POB 112 Linwood, NJ 08221.

UPDATE: Sunday morning: Officials say the drinking water in Ventnor now is ok (thanks, just bought four jugs of spring water), and boiling etc. no longer necessary. The leaking sewage pipe in the bay area continues, and recreation and fishing restrictions still apply. Apparently, people have been ocmplaining about the sewage pump at Fulton and Harvard for quite awhile, with no or little response from city officials. Like I said, thanks guys.

Well, the world seems to be ending, and it's beginning in Ventnor, New Jersey. Visitors and locals were greeted with emails and recorded phone messages Friday night informing them that 1. a sewage pipe had ruptured around Harvard and Fulton Aves in the back bay section, and near ski beach, and that all jet skiing, swimming, etc. was prhobited until further notice. THe state DEP said all shellfish etc. from Lakes Bay north of Margate was now considered not safe for consumption. This broken sewage pipe has been a problem that has been around for awhile. An earlier fix did not do the trick, and well, I guess the subsequent fix that was supposed to do the trick hadn't yet been executed. Nice. Everyone head to the ocean.

Then, a few minutes later, another fun notification. The city had found e-0coli contamination in the dirnking water and was adivsing residents to boil their water or use bottled. They discovered this problem on Wednesday, told everybody on Friday. Thanks guys! Doesn't seem to have affected my dog, and we're all on a bottled water jag anyway, but still. Would have been better to eat those backyard tomatoes straight off the vine, I guess. N o word on when things will be back to normal . Everyone have a fun weekend! Don't forget the Hobie Cat Regatta on Oxford, it's gonna e awesome. Start time at noon. UPDATE: Hobie Regataa postponed until next Saturday because of light to no wind forecast. 

Here's more details from our friends at the Press of Atlantic Ciy. 

Well, I'm an Army Corps of Engineer skeptic in general, having seen the fine federal agency block the view from Boardwalks with their overly high dunes, rebuild beaches and create swimming hazards, alter longtime surfing beaches to the detriment of the local economy and surf culture and just generally bungle things in the name of beach replenishment. And when they arrived in Ventnor mid-July _ basically telling city officials, we're in Atlantic City (replenishing near the Inlet and the costly and state-backed Revel casino project), if you want your beaches replenished, it's now or never _ it seemed the height of aburdity. So it became now. 

And then it became this, a wide beach with a dune that shouts out "We learned our lesson from Atlantic City and no longer build the dunes so high!" Nicely done:

If it was your only week at the shore, and you rented in the south end of town, and all the beaches were blocked off and there were giant beach walker tripod and other heavy equipment that looked like super-duper lego transformer toys and the sound of the pipes and dredging -- whoosh -- kept you up at night and you don't like looking at enormous pipes while you sit on the beach, well, it may have been a big bummer. On the other hand, in about a week's time, the Army Corps created new beaches from about Sacramento on down to almost Margate, where there had been virtually no beach at high tide for a long time. Gotta give them some props on this one.

Here's the view from Newport Avenue, dramatically different from a week ago. This winter, I got caught against the eroding sand cliff by the Boardwalk (see video, below) as the tide came in. It was ridiculous, but you know, kinda cool too. But if your goal is room to stretch your feet out on the sand, the Army Corp's got your back.

Here's a view looking back toward the Boardwalk. A week ago, the water was right up against it, eroding what remained of a dune before your very eyes.  

And here's video of the beach eroding before your very eyes, from this spring. 

Ah, the unwanted shore guest. This summer, in Ventnor, it's not your distant cousin or the long lost
childhood pal who just found out _ longlost childhood pal likes this!_ you have a house at the shore.
It's the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. And they're bringing big pipes and taking your spot on the sand.
On the upside, they promise to leave the place better than they found it. Seems the Corps was already replenishing the beaches in Atlantic City near the inlet (and the new multigazillion dollar Revel hotel casino project) and let the downbeach cousin know that if they ever wanted that beach replenishment, it was now or never. So in they marched, with their supersized beach vehicles, blocks of pipes, and hard hats walking the boardwalk. Should be all over in two weeks or so, but in the meantime, Tuesday night Suffolk Avenue beach volleyball < script src="tinymce/tiny_mce-3.2.7/themes/advanced/langs/en.js" type="text/javascript"> has been replaced by a staging ground for beach fill pipes (Above, that's my pal and Boardwalk maven Bobby Perloff riding by). And a nice kaboom accompanied bikers on their morning ride. But who can blame city officials for giving the go ahead? At low tide, the beaches from around Newport on South to the Margate border are non-existent, with steep cliffs that this winter eroded before your very eyes as the waves lapped up against them. Let's just hope it doesn't last long, as, frankly, July is the time you want to be using your beach, not fixing your beach.