Wildwood State Park to Reopen Friday

's campgrounds and hiking trails will reopen to the public Friday after maintenance crews spent more than a week clearing debris, dangling tree limbs and the rest of the havoc wreaked by Tropical Storm Irene within its 722 acres.

The storm "devastated" the trails and campground areas, which remained closed for the sell-out Labor Day weekend, Park Director Michael Bogucki said.

“We always sell out for Labor Day, and I wouldn't have closed the campgrounds if safety wasn't the issue," Bogucki said. "I didn’t want to take a chance. People pay to sleep [in our woodlands], and I don’t want anyone getting hit in the head by falling dead branches.”

Warning signs and "Do Not Enter" tape blocked access to areas that were off-limits to the public, but this failed to prevent one hiker, who ventured into a trailhead from getting hit in the head by a tree branch, Bogucki said.

At the park beach, Park Ranger Glinda Jones said two to three feet of bluffs on the left side had collapsed, thanks to Irene.

Fortunately, the powerful northeasterly winds that followed the day after replenished a foot-and-a-half of sand, Bogucki said. “It looked like a bulldozer had pushed the sand back in place,” he added.

That enabled the park crew to clear debris in time to reopen the beach section of the park for the Labor Day weekend.

“We had trees coming down the cliffs and clean up, but there was little else to do,” Bogucki added.

That has been the mantra of the park’s staff in terms of cleaning up the effects of hurricanes to the beach, he said. “It kind of takes care of itself,” he added. “Our main concerns are cleanup of drift materials and debris.”

Irene’s effects on the park’s beach was nothing compared to the 1992 nor'easter, which caused major erosion, Bogucki said, adding the beach has never rebounded from that damage.

“Now, at high tide, there is nothing in front of the bathhouse except for the [Long Island] Sound,” he said. “Boulders that were hidden by mounds of sand are now exposed. It’s just what years of erosion have done.”

Wildwood started building a new bathhouse this week to replace the saltwater-eroded structure built in 1985, Bogucki said. Ironically, that bathhouse endured the brunt of Hurricane Gloria the same year, as well as Hurricane Bob in 1991, though it dodged any major damage caused by Irene.

Wildwood will be holding a "Beach Cleanup Day" on Sept. 17 at 9 a.m. for residents interested in assisting in the maintenance of the park beach. For more information, call the park office at 631-929-4314.