Winter Beach Erosion Could Kill NJ Beaches

New Jersey's beaches have been spared the worst this year in terms of damage and beach erosion, but that may not be the case in just a few months.

Winter beach erosion threatens more of the state's coastline than storms that occur during the spring and summer.

"Irene had big publicity with it, but that storm did far less damage compared to a few of the nor'easters we had in recent years, particularly the ones we had in 2009 and 2010" said Dr. Jon Miller, a research professor at Steven's Institute of Technology.

He says Mother Nature can be highly unpredictable.

"You never know what she will bring during the winter months and that is exactly what we are heading into right now, so we just have to wait and see what happens and hopefully the state won't see too much damage."

So far, compared to other east coast states, New Jersey's beaches look pretty good.

"They are in decent shape, we haven't had beach erosion that a lot of other states have had during the summer months with some of those bigger tropical storms that came up the Atlantic" said Miller.

Beach replenishment projects also played a significant part in keeping beaches up to par, he says.

"There were several plans that were finished that helped many shore towns the last few years."