Seawall collapse damages Shore houses

SEA ISLE CITY, N.J. - Engineers tried to determine yesterday what caused the bulkhead in front of two houses on Ludlam Bay in Sea Isle City to collapse over the weekend, rendering three structures uninhabitable.

The disintegration of the bulkhead - wood-and-steel walls built to prevent erosion - occurred during an unusually high tide in a deep section of the bay near the mouth of Townsend's Inlet. The water pulled docks, fence and building materials, including a first-floor deck, from two bayside dwellings on Sounds Avenue near 82d Street.

On one building, a three-story white spiral staircase that once led to a dock dangled in mid-air. One of two pillars that supported a ground-level porch was missing, as was the porch itself. Two upper decks listed to one side.

Police said no one was injured and no other damage was reported in the area, which authorities said had calm weather over the weekend.

The National Weather Service reported an unusually high tide on Saturday. And the moon, according to the Farmer's Almanac, was the nearest and brightest it will be in 2009, what American Indians call a Wolf Moon. When the moon is closer to the Earth, tides are higher.

The roiling water, which is 40 feet deep near the collapse, washed debris from the structures more than a mile north to a spot near 56th Street.

Police received a call Saturday morning from a neighbor who noticed the deck collapse at 8209 Sounds Ave. When authorities arrived at the three-unit condominium, they found that the destroyed seawall had undermined a support structure under the building. The furnished property - which is more than 20 years old and was recently remodeled - was unoccupied, police said.

"We could hear wood cracking and snapping sounds over the weekend and we thought that maybe there was a problem," said Peggy Cunningham, who lives in a cottage across the street.

As the tides rose and fell over the weekend, officials determined that even more of the three-story structure was deteriorating and had led to significant damage to two properties to the south.

Police cordoned off the three buildings yesterday. For safety reasons, no one was allowed inside 8209 Sounds Ave.

Neil Byrne, construction code official for Sea Isle City, said engineers and crews were working to secure the area and to determine what caused the collapse.

Bulkheads are owned and maintained by property owners, Byrne said, and are inspected by the city only during construction.

According to tax records, the threatened properties at 8211 and 8213 Sounds Ave. are owned by Karl Bauz, of New Britain, Bucks County, who owns a telecommunications and cable supply company. Construction at 8211 was completed about two years ago, officials said.

Bauz, captain of a fishing team called Pirasea that hunts shark, tuna and other species in high-stakes tournaments from Cape May to Costa Rica, declined yesterday to speak to reporters.

Police said Bauz was paying a structural engineer to monitor the integrity of his large house as he and more than a half-dozen relatives and friends removed furnishings and personal belongings from 8211 Sounds Ave. Workers were disassembling a white, carved canopy bed in an upstairs bedroom.

"If the engineer tells them to get out, then they have to move quickly and all get out right away. It's that critical," said a police officer who declined to be identified.

"That's a lovely, lovely home," Cunningham said. "I feel so very sorry for what they must be going through."

Cunningham said that for years wave action from the inlet had scoured the shoreline where the bulkheads were undermined.

"I've seen the city and the homeowners over there trying to do different things over the years because the water does come up a lot there at that street end," she said. "But maybe they were all Band-Aid fixes on a larger problem. It makes you wonder if the whole line of those houses are going to go."

Sea Isle City administrator George Savastano said homeowners were working privately with contractors and engineers to determine their next move.

Savastano would not comment on whether any other houses that back up to the bay could be in jeopardy or whether there had been past efforts to shore up bulkheads.

City officials were "working alongside the homeowners" and county, state and federal authorities to determine the "proper course of action to resolve the problem," Sea Isle City Police Chief Thomas J. D'Intino said in a statement.

"We're working to determine who's responsible for what right now," Savastano said.

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