Karen Pennington in front of her Central Avenue house after the waters had receded. She is pointing to the high water mark. All photos by Paul Goldfinger. Click left for full view
By Paul Goldfinger
While thousands of out-of-towners were able to read about OG’s storm saga, most Grovers, caught without electricity, were unable to watch TV or view Blogfinger. Now that power is back, they can catch up, and so can the BF staff.
We want to know about the adventures of Grovers during the nasty storm that clobbered our little town. Send us your stories.
Many of you already are aware of the damages that occurred in certain parts of town including the beach front, Abbott Avenue , the North End and Broadway. But here is an account of the terror experienced on yet another street in the Grove:
Karen Pennington lives at 103 Central Avenue. Her house, a recent Beersheba winner, faces the playground, Fletcher Lake and the Bradley/OG boardwalk. Normally she has a gorgeous view.
On Tuesday morning, the water came from the ocean and reached her house, covering everything in its path. It was up to the second riser from the bottom on her stairs. She went on her porch and saw nothing but ocean. It was “terrifying.” Across the street, the playground was covered with salt water. When we got there we found what was left after the water receded, including a smorgasbord of debris stuck in the fence.
Central Avenue playground
To Karen’s immediate right (our left) is Clark Avenue. At least three telephone poles from Ocean Avenue came floating across and headed west on Clark, reaching Pilgrim Pathway. Karen, with her delightful British accent, referred to them as “telegraph poles.” Since she is a lady, she refrained from putting an appropriate adjective in front of those poles which we found lying at the curb on Clark at the Pathway, along with piles of detritus.
Telegraph poles lying on Clark Avenue at Pilgrim Pathway
I found a fish in Karen’s front yard. (There are reports of larger fish “swimming” into the Grove.) Karen’s basement was flooded, but she was outside on Wednesday, clearing the mess.
A casualty of the storm. Found in Karen’s front yard.
We are weekenders at Ocean Grove and just love God’s square mile. On the Saturday before the hurricane, we packed up the rocking chairs on the porch, the tables and back patio furniture into our cottage and when we left Sunday morning, we prayed as we pulled away that all would be okay when we returned. On Friday, we drove down, hoping for the best. We pulled up, and were amazed to find nothing at all had happened. As we stood on our porch, my husband pointed up at the outside rafter beam and said “look”. To my amazement, there hung our gold plastic angel, my 25 cent craft store clearance purchase, that is hung by a single little nail. We had forgotten to put the angel inside. Thank you God and all your angels for always looking over us and for reminding me that even if we may forget, you never do.
Whether the salt water from the storm surge or other factors, there were quite a few dead catfish, or whatever unique species lives there, floating at the outflow of Wesley Lake. There also seems to be a bumper crop of young resident geese that made it through Sandy.