UPDATE: Good Luck Point, Pelican Island Hit Hardest by the Storm, Mayor Says

So far, it appears that Good Luck Point, Pelican Island, South Seaside Park and Glen Cove areas of Berkeley took the brunt of damage from Hurricane Irene, Mayor Jason J. Varano said.

Varano and other emergency management officials are out in a Chevy Suburban surveying the damage now. They got part way down Bayview Avenue coming from Ocean Gate and were stopped by flood waters, Varano said.

"This looks pretty bad here," the mayor said. "Good Luck Point is probably underwater. We're not sure of the home damage yet."

However, Berkeley Shores, the Amherst Beach and Allen Road Beach areas seem to have made out fairly well, even though the waters are up to the bulkheads, Varano said.

"Berkeley Shores is looking pretty good," he said.

It's another story in Pelican Island and South Seaside Park, where the water is two to three feet deep in some places.

William Vannella, deputy public works director, compared the flooding to the December 1992 Noreaster.

Roads into Pelican Island are blocked off, he said.

"People are driving by with their vehicles to look and putting wakes into people's homes," Vannella said.

Flooding is also bad in South Seaside Park from Barnegat Avenue towards Bayview Avenue and from 20th to 24th streets, he said.

There doesn't appear to be any structural damage to South Seaside Park homes, Construction Official Willaim Schultz said.

"It's amazing," he said. "Most people boarded up their homes, that's why."

Power stayed on in most sections of the township, except for portions of Holiday City, Glen Cove and portions of Bayville, the mayor said.

Varano and emergency management official Rip Bondulich were planning on touring any sections that might have been affected by the storm.

"We're down by the Ocean Gate Yacht Basin," Bondulich said earlier this morning. "We can't even get to Good Luck Point. We have to get a bigger vehicle."

High tide crested in South Seaside Park around 11 a.m. Officials are concerned that the west winds will continue to push more water into Pelican Island and the bayside of South Seaside Park during the day.

The westerly winds will push water out of the mainland back bay and river areas, Vannella said.

Berkeley Patch will continue to update storm damage as more information becomes available.