Hurricane Risk in Longport, NJ: Ten Lost Streets, Still Mostly Water
Longport is a borough in Atlantic County, New Jersey, sitting on the southwest corner of Absecon Island, an 8.1-mile barrier island it shares with Margate City, Ventnor City, and Atlantic City. Per Wikipedia, the borough's 2020 census population was 893, down slightly from 895 in 2010, and total area is just 1.56 square miles -- only 0.40 square miles of land against 1.16 square miles of water, meaning Longport is roughly 74.49% water today, among the highest water-to-land ratios of any Jersey Shore town. That geography is not incidental. Between 1900 and 1916, storms permanently eroded 180 acres comprising ten numbered streets on the barrier island's southern end, per Wikipedia -- a real, dated loss of platted, buildable land to the sea that still shapes the town's water-dominant footprint today. This page lays out that history and the general hurricane and nor'easter exposure it points to, honestly, without attaching invented recent storm names or dollar figures to it.
The 1900-1916 Erosion Event: Ten Streets Lost to the Sea
Longport's own founding was recent by Jersey Shore standards: James Long purchased property in the area in 1857, M. Simpson McCullough acquired and developed it in 1882 and named it Longport in Long's honor, and the borough incorporated on March 7, 1898, carved out of Egg Harbor Township, per Wikipedia. Within roughly two decades of incorporation, a stretch of storms between 1900 and 1916 eroded 180 acres of the barrier island's southern end -- land that had been platted into ten numbered streets. That is not a description of beach narrowing or dune loss; it is a documented loss of streets that had presumably been laid out for development, permanently removed from the map by repeated storm action.
No single named storm or specific dollar figure for that 1900-1916 erosion is confirmed in the research behind this page, and none is invented here. What is confirmed is the scale and the outcome: ten numbered streets and 180 acres gone, and a borough that today, more than a century later, carries a total area that is roughly three-quarters water by that same measure. On a barrier island this narrow, a stretch of repeated storms over less than two decades was enough to erase a meaningful share of platted land -- a fact worth sitting with before assuming that today's shoreline is a fixed, permanent boundary.
A Borough That Is 74.49% Water Today
Longport's current geography is the direct, still-visible legacy of that early-20th-century loss. Wikipedia records the borough's total area at 1.56 square miles, of which just 0.40 square miles is land and 1.16 square miles is water -- a ratio of roughly 74.49% water to 25.51% land. That is an unusually high water share for any inhabited town, let alone one on an open-ocean barrier island, and it reflects both the bay and channel waters that wrap the borough and the ten streets' worth of land the sea had already claimed by 1916.
Longport sits at the southwest tip of Absecon Island, a barrier island it shares with Margate City, Ventnor City, and Atlantic City to the north. A barrier island this narrow, with open Atlantic Ocean on one side and back-bay channel water on the other, has limited buffer against storm surge and wind-driven tides in either direction -- and a borough where water already outweighs land by roughly three to one has, by definition, less high ground to retreat to than a town built on broader, less water-fragmented terrain.
General Jersey Shore Exposure: Hurricanes and Nor'easters
The New Jersey coastline as a whole faces two related but distinct kinds of coastal storms: tropical systems (hurricanes and tropical storms, generally a late-summer-through-fall risk) and nor'easters (extratropical storms that can strike at any time of year, named for the northeasterly winds that drive them onshore). Both can produce storm surge, wind damage, and coastal flooding, and both are a standing, general feature of exposure along low-lying stretches of the Jersey Shore -- a category of regional risk this page can describe honestly without needing a specific, dated recent Longport event to justify it.
Longport's own documented history shows that this general category of risk is not abstract for this particular borough: the 1900-1916 erosion of 180 acres and ten numbered streets is a real, dated instance of storms permanently reshaping this exact stretch of ground. Combined with a barrier-island position at the southwest tip of Absecon Island and a borough that is today roughly 74.49% water, that history is a reasonable basis for taking general hurricane and nor'easter preparedness seriously here -- without needing to name a specific recent storm that this research did not confirm.
What This Page Does Not Confirm
This page confirms the 1900-1916 erosion of 180 acres and ten numbered streets, and Longport's current 74.49% water-to-land ratio, per Wikipedia. It does not state any specific named hurricane, tropical storm, or nor'easter as having struck Longport at any other date, and it does not attach a dollar figure, a building count, or a casualty figure to any storm event for this borough beyond what is above -- none of that was confirmed in the research behind this page, and none of it is invented here. It also does not assign Longport, or any part of it, to a specific FEMA flood zone or evacuation zone letter, and it does not state a current hurricane-season forecast, storm-frequency statistic, or storm-surge projection specific to this location.
This page also does not state a current Longport or Atlantic County property tax rate or a current New Jersey state sales tax rate. Longport's ranking as the 22nd most expensive ZIP code in New Jersey in 2018, its $767,500 median home sale price in 2017, and its $10,872 average property tax bill in 2018 (the highest in Atlantic County that year) are dated figures cited for historical context, not current market data. New Jersey has its own state sales tax and its own property-tax structure, genuinely different from other states' -- this is this site's tenth New Jersey market, following Cape May, Wildwood, Wildwood Crest, North Wildwood, Stone Harbor, Avalon, Sea Isle City, Ocean City, and Strathmere -- and current figures should be confirmed directly rather than assumed.
Where to Find Current Data
For current, address-specific risk assessment and evacuation planning, the right first stop is the New Jersey Office of Emergency Management, which coordinates statewide hurricane and coastal-storm preparedness, evacuation routes, and shelter information, alongside Atlantic County's own emergency management office for local zone assignments. For live storm tracking, forecasts, and historical hurricane data, use NOAA's National Hurricane Center.
For a property-specific flood zone determination, use FEMA's Flood Map Service Center, and for FEMA's own hurricane and flood preparedness guidance, visit FEMA directly. For current tax rates, assessment figures, or any borough shore-protection and dune-stewardship efforts, contact the Borough of Longport's own municipal offices directly, rather than relying on any fixed date given here. For coverage and premium questions -- including how New Jersey's insurance and coastal-property rules differ from other states -- talk to a New Jersey-licensed insurance professional before making any purchase decision. Nothing on this page is emergency-management, insurance, or engineering advice.
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Get a Free Agent Referral →Independent research. No ads. No sponsored listings. Longport's location on the southwest corner of Absecon Island, a barrier island in Atlantic County, New Jersey, shared with Margate City, Ventnor City, and Atlantic City, its 2020 census population of 893 (down slightly from 895 in 2010), its 1.56-square-mile total area (0.40 sq mi land, 1.16 sq mi water, roughly 74.49% water), and the 1900-1916 storm erosion of 180 acres comprising ten numbered streets are sourced from Wikipedia's own Longport, New Jersey entry, as is its founding history (James Long's 1857 purchase, M. Simpson McCullough's 1882 development, and its March 7, 1898 incorporation from Egg Harbor Township). Longport's 2018 ranking as the 22nd most expensive ZIP code in New Jersey, its $767,500 median home sale price in 2017, and its $10,872 average property tax bill in 2018 (the highest in Atlantic County that year) are also sourced from Wikipedia and are dated figures, not current market data. No specific named hurricane or tropical storm beyond the 1900-1916 erosion event, no current FEMA flood-zone designation, current property tax rate, New Jersey state sales tax rate, current median home price, or current active-listing count was confirmed in the research behind this page, and none is invented here. For current risk assessment and preparedness guidance, contact the New Jersey Office of Emergency Management and Atlantic County's own emergency management office directly; for live storm tracking and historical hurricane data, use NOAA's National Hurricane Center; for flood zone determinations and preparedness resources, use FEMA's Flood Map Service Center and FEMA directly; and for coverage questions, consult a New Jersey-licensed insurance professional. Nothing on this page is emergency-management, insurance, or engineering advice.