Atlantic City prepares for Joaquin
Atlantic City Mayor Don Guardian held a press briefing Thursday afternoon to stress that the city would be proactive in executing any mandatory evacuations ordered ahead of Joaquin's approach.
Atlantic City Mayor Don Guardian held a press briefing Thursday afternoon to stress that the city would be proactive in executing any mandatory evacuations ordered ahead of Joaquin's approach.
During Sandy, then-Mayor Lorenzo Langford was criticized by Gov. Christie and others for not doing more to get people out of the island city, instead setting up shelters within the city's borders, some of which flooded.
"We certainly have learned a lot from Sandy," Guardian said. "If there are evacuations, we will start on Sunday to get everyone off the island 24 hours before the hurricane."
Boats have already been moved to fire stations because another Sandy lesson was, he said, "Police cars don't work well in four feet of water."
The city would still set up a "shelter of last resort" for anyone who remained behind, officials said. They urged residents to begin making their own arrangements to stay with family or friends in safer areas, as a precaution.
Guardian also said the city had a better system in place now to keep track of where people were evacuated to, so that family members could more easily locate them than during Sandy. The destinations would be within Atlantic County, he said, unlike during Sandy, when some residents ended up in North Jersey.
Guardian said work is underway on two projects designed to make the city more resilient in the face of major storms, but that neither had been completed nearly three years after Sandy.
They include rebuilding the Boardwalk on the inlet end of town, where the famous Sandy photos were taken that led people erroneously to conclude the entire Boardwalk had been damaged, and an underground drainage canal and pumping station system for the back bays that would address much of the flooding the city experiences.
The Boardwalk project is still in the demolition phase, Guardian said (so any storm damage would only accelerate that process). The canal project is still without the pumping stations.
"Of course I'm frustrated," Guardian said, while praising the help and funding the city has received from state and federal sources to advance both projects. He noted that while many homes have been rebuilt and elevated, many have not.
"I would be very foolish to say everybody's recovered from Sandy," he said.
Atlantic City battalion chief Angelo DeMaio Jr. said the city was expecting storm surges of 7 1/2 to 8 feet of water in the next two or three days, which would produce flooding in all the usual low lying areas, but that their main focus continued to be on Joaquin.
Madonna is still scheduled to play Boardwalk Hall Saturday night, he said.
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