Coastal towns: 'This flooding is worse than Sandy'

Beach communities in New Jersey and Delaware were evaluating the aftermath from the massive winter storm as high tides washed out dunes and brought icy water into the streets.

Delaware's sand-enriched beaches from Lewes toFenwick Island took a whipping as dunes were flattened and wiped away. The ones that remained looked like a giant front-end loader came through and scooped off the face, leaving a jagged series of cliffs.

Sand fencing lay crumpled like the tracks from a derelict roller coaster. And in Rehoboth, the boardwalk buckled in places from the force of waves pounding the boards from the bottom up. A frosting of sand an inch thick covered the popular attraction at the end of Rehoboth Avenue.

The shoreline destruction was coastwide and included extensive bayshore flooding.

It makes "us very, very vulnerable," said Anthony Pratt, Delaware's shoreline and waterway administrator.

The tally is bad: Gone is the entire dune at the north end of Rehoboth's Boardwalk. The dune also was flattened at the south ends of Bethany Beach and nearby South Bethany. Along the remaining ocean coast, Pratt said, about 20 miles' worth of dunes have been badly damaged. Delaware's ocean coast spans 24 miles total.