‘Lake Christie’ Returns – Storm Re-Floods Margate Beach With New Dunes [VIDEO]

The large pool of rain water, sarcastically known as Lake Christie, returned to the Margate Beach Monday, refilling the area that had just been drained and dried after the last large rainstorm. 

The 12-block-stretch of beach in Margate where summer dune work has taken place had an 18-inch pool of standing pool of rain water caught between the back of the new dunes and the bulkhead, which quickly registered extremely high bacteria numbers.

The contractors employed by the Army Corp of Engineers drained the standing water late last week as resident concerns became increasingly vocal and a judge ordered all work on the beach replenishment stopped for one week until solutions can be found.

Margate has been fighting the building of the dunes on its beaches since the project was first proposed by the Christie administration following Superstorm Sandy. The city lost a court battle to the state over the dunes in 2016 and now is dealing with the dune work in the height of the summer season.

The next court hearing is scheduled for Friday. Margate mayor Mike Becker says pumps will be turned on to remove all the standing water.

Margate received 1.5 inches of rain from Monday's storm in a little over 3 hours, much less than the previous storm, but with similar results as far as flooding in this area.

Here is video of what I saw in a quick trip to the beach at the end of my street Monday afternoon.