This past fall Ocean City was extremely lucky, we barely escaped the wrath of Hurricane Irene.  She was expected to bring quite a bit of devastation to our small coastal town.  Somehow, in the 9th hour she weakened, headed slightly west and higher up the coast, bringing unpredicted amounts of rain inland.  We all counted our blessings, Ocean City is no stranger to the damaging effects from storms, we are aware of the damage Mother Nature can inflict.  In 1933 Ocean City was hit by an extremely strong hurricane, creating what is now our world famous Inlet;  the storm separated Ocean City from the what is now Assateague Island... and made Ocean City a central spot for offshore fishing.  The majority of downtown's buildings are from the early Ocean City days, some over 100 years old.   If we were to be hit by a major hurricane, the effects were be catastrophic.  We were lucky to be barely harmed this time, but this isn't to say she didn't cause some damage... but overall we were very fortunate.   Irene's tidal surge was strong, she succeed in knocking down some of our pier and our 11-ton Inlet tower beacon.

Our old inlet beacon

Last month the United States Coast Guard airlifted a temporary tower to replace our missing jetty beacon ( New Jetty Tower ).  Last week divers attempted to recover the old tower and remove it from the ocean near the Inlet Jetty.    As of two weeks ago, what was believed to be concrete from the tower base was spotted in the water just north of the Jetty, yet divers last week were unable to find the structure.   The old tower is roughly 20 feet tall, and weighs quite a few tons (11 to be exact).  Experts don't believe that the tower could've gone far, given it's massive weight.  Hopes are that the beacon has been swept over with tidal sand and will continue to be buried deeper.

Honestly, I am surprised that divers didn't use additional methods to locate the tower, such as sonar.  What was spotted two weeks ago in the water was thought to be the tower base, however no one was completely sure.  We've had a decent amount of winter swells since Irene (that was over 6 months ago!), it is very possible that the tower could have moved farther north than expected.   It's also possible that it could have been washed into the Inlet, a 20 foot tower that could possibly stick up doesn't seem like the safest item for this body of water - especially when much of our economy relies upon the fishing industry.  I just hope it stays where ever it may be and doesn't cause an issue to any of our swimmers, surfers or boaters this summer.   It seems like a very large and possibly dangerous object to be resting just a few feet off our our coast.  It's also possible that another storm could dislodge it... I suppose we'll approach that subject when we get to it though.  For now, it seems that our old tower will simply remain missing in the Atlantic.