Sea Bright residents try to shovel out the side streets of Ocean Avenue Monday afternoon. (Photo by Dustin Racioppi; click to enlarge)

By DUSTIN RACIOPPI

Sea Bright and Middletown officials expect cleanup efforts from the overnight blizzard to take all day and well into Monday evening.

In both towns, cars are stranded all over.

“It’s like a war zone out there,” Sea Bright Police Chief John Sorrentino told redbankgreen.

A car was stranded at the eastern foot of the Shrewsbury River Bridge Monday. (Photo by Dustin Racioppi; click to enlarge)

Sorrentino said that as of Monday afternoon, Ocean Avenue was about the only road open to traffic. Most side streets were still snowed in, but public works crews started around 1:30p to clear those streets out.

“It’s going to be a while,” he said. “In some areas, the snow was up to my chest, so it’s going to be a slow go of it.”

Sorrentino also noted problems at the recently-completed Highlands-Sea Bright Bridge. He said vehicles had difficulty getting up the incline of the 75-foot-high span and were sliding around once on it.

“I hope the DOT addresses that issue,” he said.

No major accidents were reported in Sea Bright or Middletown.

Middletown Detective Lieutenant Steve Dollinger said police were mainly dealing with stranded cars Monday while plows tried to clear the streets. That task in itself will be difficult, he said.

“We’ve got people stuck all over. Plows are stuck all over,” he said.

Dollinger recommended that until the state emergency is lifted that residents stay off the roads. Meanwhile, public works crews will be out trying to clear the roadways.

“Things are still a mess,” Dollinger said. “It’s going to take guys all night to clean this up.”

Police chiefs in the boroughs of Fair Haven, Little Silver and Rumson could not be reached for comment Monday.