DOVER, Del. (AP) — Residents of the seaside communities of Bethany Beach and Fenwick Island took advantage of sunny skies Wednesday to begin cleaning up the mess left by superstorm Sandy, which inundated several streets in both resort towns and left floodwaters lapping at the edges of houses.
The waters receded rapidly and roads were reopened, allowing year-round residents and owners of vacation homes to return to their properties and start cleaning up.
Greg Pfister of Newark said the jet ski in the backyard of his South Bethany home appeared to be in good shape.
The only problem was that it’s not his.
“We’re back to somewhat normal, whatever normal is,” said Pfister, who got about 20 inches of water in his attached garage but was grateful that his home itself did not flood.
“It certainly isn’t anything like New Jersey,” he noted.
Aerial surveys on Tuesday showed many homes surrounded by water, but with the passage of the storm the water began flowing back into inland waterways.
“The water dropped dramatically overnight, said Bethany Beach Mayor Tony McClenny, whose town has about 1,200 year-round residents.
Officials in both towns said there did not appear to be any major damage. While water from Little Assawoman Bay and other inland waterways flowed into streets and yards, beach dunes weathered the storm.
“The dunes save our you-know-what,” McClenny said. “We are extremely blessed that this storm did not do more than it did,” he added. “We were lucky.”
Fenwick Island Town Manager Merritt Burke IV said he was fielding calls from out-of-town residents worried about their vacation homes.
“The town’s open for business. ‘Welcome back,’ is what I’m telling everybody,” said Burke, who expects homeowners from other states to straggle in over the next 30 days to check on their dwellings.
“Surely there will be some minor damage, carpets will need to be replaced, and drywall,” said Burke, who estimates that a little more than 100 of the town’s 700 homes are occupied year-round.
Burke said the older homes built on slabs instead of pilings likely sustained more water damage than others.
Burke was grateful for no major damage and no deaths or injuries.
“Most of our streets are cleared,” he said. “We are in debris-removal mode right now.”
Pfister, whose South Bethany home is not built on pilings, said the water came within about a foot of getting inside.
Kathy Shorter, who rode out the storm in her Bethany Beach home, said the water was up to the first of four steps.
“It’s just unbelievable to me how quickly it receded,” she said Wednesday, adding that the biggest issue now is cleaning up the debris left by the water.
“Trash is everywhere,” she said. “There’s just debris everywhere.”
Shorter admitted that she and her partner had second thoughts about staying at home as they watched the waters rise.
“Would we do it again? Probably not,” she said.
