What those High Water Mark signs in Sea Bright mean

By Neil Schulman
Sea Bright — Knowing what you might expect from a flood is an important step in staying safe. That is why the High Water Initiative Mark program rewards communities that mark where floodwaters reached during Superstorm Sandy or other major storms.

Sea Bright is a participant in the program along with 14 other communities throughout the county. Dr. Michael Schwebel of Sea Grant, a professor at Monmouth University, spoke about the program and how it works at Tuesday’s Borough Council meeting.

The High Water Initiative Mark is part of the National Flood Insurance Program, Schwebel said. Installing the signs at various places in a municipality can lower flood insurance premiums.

“A lot of communities are taking advantage of this,” Schwebel said.
Actually figuring out the height the water reached, and using a standard system throughout all the participating communities. is trickier than it sounds.

The University’s Urban Coast Institute helped volunteers and research teams conduct surveys using Real Time Kinematic Global Positioning System systems. And because there are numerous ways to describe how high the water has risen, all participants in the program use a standard called NAVD88, which is close to the mean high tide level.

There’s a lot of flexibility in the system. Some communities choose signs with different looks for aesthetic reasons. They have a say in where to place them — Ocean Township put signs in a right of way, though it’s considering moving them because of complaints about the location.

A few Bayshore towns, which believe they suffered more damage from Hurricane Irene in 2011 than Superstorm Sandy in 2012, are using damage from that storm as the marker.

And there are several participants in the program who did not go through the county but initiated it on their own.
Joining the High Water Mark Initiative is entirely voluntary. Schwebel said that some towns have been reluctant to take part because they fear reminders of how bad a flood can get will keep people from wanting to move into a community. But most have found it helpful — and some say it even draws visitors who want to imagine what an area looked like underwater.

Schwebel also suggested sites on the internet to learn how much damage rising water can do to a town. One, Climate Central Surging Seas (sealevel.climatecentral.­org), analyzes how much rising water could damage a town based on data about building location, environmentally sensitive areas, property value and other factors. For example, Sea Bright would risk $100 million more in property damage if the sea rose four feet compared to three feet in a storm.

Editor’s note: an earlier version of this article had Dr. Schwebel’s name wrong.