All That Work at the Jersey Shore Got Wiped Out Last Weekend

Ocean City, New Jersey, was where we went during the summer when I lived there. We still have a place there because my parents are now snowbirds. So, what happened this summer isn’t new: they were going to dredge all summer to restore the beach, which had degraded over years of longshore currents. All our sand goes to Wildwood, whose beach is massive. It feels like you’re walking through the Mojave at some points. But the city’s beach replenishment project, which wrapped up in early September, barely lasted a month.

It’s a double-edged sword: it needs to be done, but if a major storm hits, it could all be washed away. And that’s what happened. We had a strong nor’easter on September 25 that bashed the East Coast. Flooding was horrific, with some parts of the Jersey Shore seeing sharks swimming through the streets. Anyway, Ocean City spent $19.5 million, only to have all its sand washed away three weeks later. The project was marked complete on September 8 (via CBS News):

Equipment is in place on the beach in Ocean City, New Jersey, on Tuesday as a $19.5 million beach replenishment project contracted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers gets underway.
A dredging ship operated by the Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Company is being moved to the area, and pipes for the sand-pumping operation were put in place Tuesday morning.
Sand-pumping operations were expected to begin Tuesday afternoon. The work will add about 1.6 million cubic yards of sand to the beach, Ocean City officials say.
Several Jersey Shore beaches have dealt with erosion after the region was battered by severe storms in the past year. In April, Shore towns received $99 million in federal funding to replenish sand that had been stripped away.

What a bust.

The owner of a bait and tackle store in North Beach Haven, New Jersey, said this was the worst flooding she's seen in a decade as a powerful nor'easter batters much of the East Coast. https://t.co/sgOkg9tUKn pic.twitter.com/tgmwull3Fr
— ABC News (@ABC) September 27, 2026

A dogfish shark was spotted swimming through floodwaters in Surf City, New Jersey, heading up a resident's driveway and then toward Barnegat Bay on Saturday. https://t.co/bz1DkvPDni pic.twitter.com/2tzTVQbhYV
— ABC News (@ABC) September 27, 2026

Wow, south end of LBI had significant erosion from this nor’easter. These photos were taken in Holgate. We’ve been lucky this year up to this point, no hurricanes and no major coastal systems. #njwx pic.twitter.com/VxqAeOIdKm
— Cristopher Cace (@ccace_wx) September 28, 2026

💔💔💔holgate took a bad hit #LBI pic.twitter.com/ZndooBpyOZ
— JustAJerseyGirl🌹😸 (@JustAJerseyGir2) September 27, 2026

The Holgate LBI NJ erosion photos don't do it justice unless you see it in person. @DaveCurren @Meteor_Mike @News12NJ @NWS_MountHolly @nynjpaweather @ContentWxGuy pic.twitter.com/lJlJU5FVzD
— Jim Murdoch (@ReporterJim) September 28, 2026