Middletown Closes Beaches and Roads Ahead of Earl

The Middletown Emergency Management Team has closed all town beaches, the latest in a series of precautions taken as Hurricane Earl continues to head toward Southern New England on a slightly uncertain track that has residents bracing for a hurricane but hoping for less severe tropical storm winds.

Town officials closed beaches beginning Friday with plans to re-open some beaches Sunday following a thorough clean-up on debris on Saturday, said Middletown Fire Department Chief Ronald Doire, who serves as the town's Emergency Management Director and announced the beach closures Thursday night.

"Second Beach should re-open for Sunday and Monday, but Third Beach is now officially closing for the season," said Doire. "It was scheduled to close next weekend, but it wouldn't make sense for the town to remove all the equipment from the beach this weekend and then bring it all back in to re-open it for only a week."

What that means for most people—with the exception of surfers banking on riding big waves off the town's coastline Friday and Saturday—is that local authorities will: Prohibit swimmers and boogie boarders from entering the beach waters; No lifeguards will be on duty; Beach parking lots will be closed off; And facilities at the beaches will remain closed.

The Third Beach parking lot will remain open, authorities noted, to give boat owners access to the ramp so they may remove the last few boats moored about 300 yards off the beach.

Surfers, per the norm, will be warned about the surf and rip current conditions but will surf at their own risk.

Waves at Second Beach are expected to swell beginning mid-afternoon and peak late Friday near midnight, with recent maritime estimates ranging 11- to 15-feet.

Atlantic Beach is expected to remain closed for some days following the storm due to contaminants and high bacterian levels from the storm drain that empties directly into the beach there.

Also Friday morning, Middletown Police announced the following roads will be closed beginning Friday early afternoon in anticipation of flooding:

• All roads in low-lying areas on Sachuest Point will close Friday through Saturday or until after flooding subsides. These roads include Sachuest Point Road, Hanging Rock Road, and Third Beach Access Road.

Police also noted that access will be restricted on the following roads to thru-traffic and local residents:

• Lower Aquidneck Avenue.
• Wave Avenue.
• Forest Avenue.
• Berkeley Avenue.
• Rego Road Area.