The Monmouth Boat Club as seen at high tide on the Navesink River during Monday’s storm. (Photo by Brian Donohue. Click to enlarge.)
By BRIAN DONOHUE
Mother Nature showed us this week why it’s a good idea Red Bank’s 146-year-old Monmouth Boat Club is slated to be raised a few feet in the near future.
As the two-day nor’easter peaked with the afternoon high tide Monday, the Navesink River had submerged docks, inundated parking lots and had apparently risen high enough for waters to enter the first floor of the club.
MBC house supervisor Joel Bondy was on hand assessing the situation and said the damage would hopefully be minimal. The building is designed to withstand some flooding and saw far worse during Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
“It’s been wet before,” he said.
The parking lot by the Monmouth Boat Club during Monday’s storm. (Photo by Brian Donohue.)
The club, named in May one of New Jersey’s ten most endangered historic places, recently secured a $750,000 grant from the New Jersey History Trust to raise and replace its foundation and pilings to hopefully keep it clear the water amid rising sea levels.
The money will go towards a project described in this 2024 redbankgreen video.
Elsewhere, a high-tide slosh around town in the afternoon showed no major effects of the storm at other flood-prone locations.
At Red Bank Primary School, the storm provided the first real test of work done over the summer to improve drainage and prevent flooding at the school, which was also sustained significant damage from Sandy.
The swollen Swimming River never pushed past the flood prevention berm on the grounds of the Red Bank Primary School. (photo by Brian Donohue)
Like Bondy downriver at the boat club, Red Bank Borough Schools Superintendent Jared Rumage was out in the weather making sure the facilities under his charge were staying dry. The grounds of the school, built on a former marsh, were noticeabley flood-free. “It definitely helped,” Rumage said of the construction project over the summer.
redbankgreen editor Brian Donohue may be reached via email at [email protected] or by calling or texting 848-331-8331 or yelling his name loudly as he walks by. Do you value the news coverage provided by redbankgreen? Please become a financial supporter if you haven’t already. Click here to set your own level of monthly or annual contribution.
