Point Beach, Point Boro Prepare for Hurricane With Evacuations Underway

As Hurricane Irene continued her northward trek, business owners and residents in Point Beach and Point Boro continued to prepare for her arrival.

Joanie Ferrera of Brick was applying tape to the windows of her antique shop, South Beach, as she put the finishing touches on what she could do.

"I'm nervous," she said. "I've got so much stuff in there. I've gotten it off the floor, but I'm worried that the windows will break."

Because the windows are surrounded by metal frames, boarding them up not possible. "If something happens, it could be devastating," she said. "It's tough when you're a self proprietor."

They were among hundreds who prepared for the storm as it set to strike the area, prompting evacuations of sections of Point Boro, Point Beach and Bay Head (click on towns for link to Patch stories).

A few blocks away from Ferrera, the Pellerito family of Yale Avenue was chatting with neighbors as they continued to weigh what to do. While they live in the mandatory evacuation zone east of the railroad tracks in Point Beach -- "They're about 10 yards from our backyard," Kim Pellerito said -- the water has never risen farther than Chicago Avenue, two blocks east of their home.

Friends who live on Ocean Avenue were convinced to join them when they showed photos and newspaper clippings of the aftermatch of the December 1992 nor'easter. But the Pelleritos feel relatively safe staying put.

"We have neighbors who've been here 50 years, and they've never seen it come this far," Mark Pellerito said, as the sound of waves crashing on the beach rumbled in the distance. That said, they were monitoring radio reports from the borough's radio station, 1630 AM, and internet reports carefully.

"We're packed," Kim Pellerito said, as daughters Madison, 7, and MacKenzie, 4, cavorted in the yard in their pajamas, waiting for their friends to join them. "If we need to get out, we're ready."

In the neighborhoods lining the Beaver Dam Creek, some of the residents had evacuated. But yellow fliers tucked in door handles and screen doors reminded others of the need to get out. On Calamus Place, one woman said the neighbors had decided to stay put.

"I don't know where it (the extra water) goes, but we've never had it come up here," she said. "The whole neighborhood is staying."

Point Beach police said nearly 130 residents took advantage of the transportation to area shelters, and that most people had been heeding the mandatory evacuation order. Point Boro's director of the Office of Emergency Management, Bill Dikun, said the evacuations were going smoothly in Point Boro as well.