Deb Whitcraft, based in her New Jersey Maritime Museum in Beach Haven today, Oct. 30, called the storm carnage on Long Beach Island “mountains of mayhem.”

“Nobody is going to talk about the ’62 storm anymore,” said Ship Bottom Mayor William Huelsenbeck Tuesday morning.

Huelsenbeck reported that many borough homes had three to six feet of water inside. The dunes were breached in several areas of Ship Bottom, he said.

Harvey Cedars Mayor Jonathan Oldham said the bay and ocean met in two places in the borough: at Essex and Bergen avenues.

About 50 borough residents who had planned to stay on the Island through the storm changed their minds yesterday and were evacuated by the High Point Volunteer Fire Co. in Harvey Cedars, Oldham said. A six-wheel-drive rescue vehicle took them across the bridge where they were met by shuttles to evacuation centers at Southern Regional High School in Manahawkin and Pinelands Regional High School in Little Egg Harbor.

The National Weather Service in Mount Holly reported the highest wind gust in the area yesterday at 89 mph at 2 p.m. in Surf City. The weather service registered a wind gust in Tuckerton at 88 mph at 4:30 p.m. and one in Harvey Cedars at 75 mph at 3:30 p.m.

The only rainfall total in the area yesterday reported by the weather service was 6.14 inches of rain in Barnegat.

Whitcraft said boats at Morrison’s Marina in Beach Haven were piled on top of each other. One boat floated south and ended up on Second Street, she said.

She said her brother, Okie Whitcraft, told her there is a lot of equipment damage at his butcher shop in Surf City.