Downpour floods Rehoboth Beach

Rehoboth Beach took a licking from a severe storm this weekend, but the city keeps on ticking.

Flooding on Rehoboth and Wilmington avenues damaged cars over the Aug. 25-26 weekend, but businesses were up and running Aug. 27, and visitors were crowding the beaches.

Crews from the city’s Public Works Department were the city’s first line in the clean up. Director Mel Craig said crews have been cleaning sand and debris out of catch basins at the foot showers on the Boardwalk, and dirt and sand that had accumulated near the Delaware Avenue restrooms were removed.

Craig said crews have not cleaned up private property, such as underground hotel parking garages or basements. He said crews have been picking up trash – primarily wet cardboard  – that businesses left out for collection.

Serious flooding occurred at Brighton Suites Hotel on Wilmington Avenue.

John Kleitz, general manager, said the hotel’s underground parking garage flooded within 20 minutes after the storm began. He said water from Wilmiington Avenue rushed into the garage, flooding it.

Close to 30 cars were pulled out of the hotel’s underground parking garage, and they will probably be totaled because of flood damage, Kleitz said. The hotel also lost equipment stored in the garage, such as snowblowers, powerwashers, tables and a dance floor, Kleitz said.

He said he has no cost estimate yet as to the extent of the damage. On Monday, puddles of water could still be seen in the garage, although parking is once again possible. Once the water recedes completely, Kleitz said, the garage will be degreased and powerwashed. He said the hotel is focused on getting ready for Labor Day weekend, which is sold out.

Other hotels were luckier.

Michael Lubben, general manager at Atlantic Sands Hotel, said the hotel sustained no real damage, although water flooded a café and spa on the first floor, leaking into the hallway. He said the water washed out the next day. Lubben said the underground parking garage did not flood.

Mayor Sam Cooper said much of the flooding on Delaware, Wilmington and Brooklyn avenues was caused by backed up stormwater outfall pipes, which carry stormwater from the streets into the ocean.

The stormwater outfall pipes have been an ongoing issue since a major beach replenishment project was completed in February. The pipes are maintained by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which has been clearing the outfalls, using an excavator as needed.

Originally, the plan called for temporary extensions to be placed on the pipes, but corps officials said wave action knocked the extensions out of place. After sand had eroded at Virginia and Maryland avenues, the plan was downsized to put extensions only at Laurel Street and Rehoboth and Delaware avenues. However, the corps again revised the plan to allow sand filling the pipes to erode naturally. Until it does, the pipes are to be cleaned on an as-needed basis.

Cooper said he would be meeting with corps officials to discuss the situation.

Steve Rochette, spokesman for the army corps, said the corps has a team on site gathering information.

"We plan to continue to clear the outfall pipes until we are able to fully close the beach to extend their outfall pipes. The city has asked that we wait until October to do so," he said.

Of the storm damage, Rochette said it was a severe flash flooding event the stormwater outfalls were not capable of handling, citing heavy rain and flooding from the same series of storms in Maryland and New Jersey.