Surf City and Ship Bottom New Jersey beaches, it turns out, are littered with World War I era bombs and fuses, according to a story on the AP wire.
Back when World War I was winding down, Navy ships patrolling the New Jersey coast found themselves with leftover ammunition and no targets. . . So they dumped it all overboard, probably thinking the fuses and other ordnance would never be seen or heard from again. . . . They were wrong. Nearly 90 years later, the fuses resurfaced, invading the shores of two of New Jersey’s most popular beaches, Surf City and Ship Bottom.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which accidentally moved many of the munitions in a beach replenishment program that started in 2006 are now faced with getting all the explosives emoved before someone gets blown up. “So far, work crews have retrieved 1,213 pieces of munitions, mostly 6 to 8-inch-long fuses filled with gunpowder that could explode if jostled or struck.”
[Link: Associated Press]
