2 Ocean County senior communities in more danger from flooding than almost anywhere else

BERKELEY - Two of the country's most socially vulnerable areas to flooding lie within Ocean County — not along the Toms River, Barnegat Bay or Atlantic Ocean — but inland among the county's age-restricted communities, according to a new Community Resilience Estimate report released Tuesday from the U.S. Census.

The Silver Ridge 55-and-older community of Berkeley and the age-restricted Leisure Village neighborhood in Lakewood are among the nation's 100 most socially vulnerable communities for flooding, according to Tuesday's Census report.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency tracks communities' social vulnerability — a calculation of an area's age, disability rates and poverty, among other factors — because natural disasters in these areas could lead to higher rates of death, injury, property loss or unemployment than elsewhere. The Census' Community Resilience Estimate also takes into account an area's risks from river or coastal flooding.

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People who live in socially vulnerable communities are more likely to die in natural disasters and less likely to recover, according to a 2011 report on social vulnerability in the Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. Many of these communities are not sufficiently included in disaster planning by local emergency response and relief organizations, according to the report.

In Ocean County, the Silver Ridge neighborhood in Berkeley was the nation's 20th-most socially vulnerable area to flooding, according to the Census data. Leisure Village in Lakewood was the 96th-most socially vulnerable community across the nation, according to the report.

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Three other New Jersey neighborhoods also made the top Census' top 100 socially vulnerable communities to flooding list: a portion of downtown North Plainfield in Union County (31), inner city Camden (54), and downtown Atlantic City (68).

The Census report named Coney Island, New York, as the most socially vulnerable community in the nation in terms of flood risks.

Related: In mere seconds, an NJ home went from livable to a flooded mess.

Amanda Oglesby is an Ocean County native who covers education and the environment. She has worked for the Press for more than a decade. Reach her at @OglesbyAPP, aoglesby@gannettnj.com or 732-557-5701.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Ocean County communities face greater flood 'social vulnerability'