Lavalette

Lavallette — Four Decades on the Barnegat Barrier

Lavallette in 1920 was a modest summer colony on the Ocean County barrier, its handful of streets ending at the ocean to the east and Barnegat Bay to the west. The 1920 aerial shows the early grid of bungalows and the undeveloped beach and dune system. By 1933, development had increased and the summer hurricane had narrowed the beach. The 1944 Great Atlantic Hurricane brought the worst storm of the era — compare the 1933 and 1944 aerials and the dune damage is stark. By 1962, Lavallette had grown substantially, but the Ash Wednesday Storm overwhelmed the community: three successive high tides over 65 hours kept surge water on the island for days.