Better Than Fireworks: Tornado Rips Through Manasquan Beach, New Jersey
July 5th-2009 --- It was a typical, pleasant, post- independence beach day at Manasquan Beach in New Jersey. All were in attendance, the families with their children, the perfunctory sand castle here and there, texting teens, life guards keeping a close eye on both the scantily clad and swimmers , sun-worshippers celebrating the return of the sun after a long month hiatus, and of course, those nursing themselves from yesterday’s festivities.
A nice breeze swept along the shore. All was absolutely perfect. Except! None were prepared for what was about to happen next.
A man with his family sat near the beach volleyball courts. He jumped from his chair to catch his umbrella. Pretty standard, but the wind conspired against him. The umbrella was swept into a frenzy-- a type of beach eddy, a swirling, colliding wind that sent this umbrella on a mad course towards the shoreline.
The swirling wind picked up steam. The swirl became a zig zagging tornado of sand, beach chairs, and umbrellas. One man’s paperwork was engulfed and gave the swirling mass perfect visual form.
A few feet from the tornado, Craig and Eric Wurtenberg reported that several people were hurt during the incident. The Wurtenbergs said the man sitting beside them was hit with two chairs before he could even get up. Another man had a huge knot on his forehead from getting pelted repeatedly from the angry mass.
“We’ve been coming to Jersey shore for years and haven’t seen anything like that. We were lucky. We only lost an umbrella. It could have been tragic,” said Wurtenberg.
The Wurtenbergs laughed off the event. It turns out that their umbrella had their company logo on it promoting their New Jersey online classifieds website, NJville.com, “We’re offering a $250 reward for anyone that finds it,” laughed Wurtenberg.
Forget Fourth of July fireworks! Finally, the tornado mayhem moved over the water. The whole beach stood in awe as umbrellas circled furiously 200 feet in the air.
Umbrellas were reported later to be washing up on Point Pleasant beach.
