Hi, guys. Just wanted to add a couple thoughts based on my local knowledge for any of those chasing Sandy in NJ who are from outside of the area. I live in far SE PA and am very familiar with southern NJ, particularly the coastline from Atlantic City southward to Cape May (which, at this moment, looks to be where landfall will occur). First, there are TONS of pine trees along most of the access roads (including the Garden State Parkway, which is the main N-S roadway close to the shore, and the Atlantic City Expressway, which is the primary highway between Philadelphia and Atlantic City), which will likely pose a huge problem. Additionally, most of the places along the shoreline (Ocean City, Sea Isle City, Avalon, etc.) are quite narrow barrier islands with fairly large back bays behind them. In a more normal nor'easter, these bays are the primarily source of the coastal flooding in these communities and regularly cut off access to these islands by the flooding of the access roads. These areas are highly flood prone and, given the surge, could mostly be under water. As a result, many of these towns will close access roads (if they haven't already). Also, most of these towns do not have parking garages or any larger structures which would provide a solid structure where you could station yourself through the storm. If you do go, Cape May (which is the largest community at the southern tip of NJ at the entrance to Delaware Bay) is several miles wide, although the town itself does contain many trees and is separated from the "mainland" by a canal.
I was considering the idea of chasing at the shore, but have decided against it for the above listed reasons. However, I may attempt to chase locally and attempt to post pictures if possible.
NOTE: No sooner did I finishing typing than the local NBC10 Philadelphia news affiliate indicated that the Garden State Parkway is closed from the Atlantic City Expressway southward (which is the primary highway to the towns that I listed above) and had footage which showed waters from the bays nearing the shoulders of the road.
