Andrea Shaping Up To Be an Annoyance for Shore Business Owners

The Shore's first expected tangle with tropical weather since Superstorm Sandy is shaping up to be more of an annoyance than a re-ignition of the worries brought by the Oct. 2012 storm.

"Sandy was kind of a freak storm," said Mike Carbone, Jr., who runs The Beachcomber Bar and Grill on the boardwalk in Seaside Heights with his father. "We don't do anything special for a tropical storm. We're really just hoping it goes on a different path and we don't have to worry about anything but a little bit of rain."

The tropical storm to which Carbone was referring is Tropical Storm Andrea, the first named storm of the 2013 Atlantic hurricane season that was forecast to move up the east coast and dump heavy rain on New Jersey Friday and Saturday.

While the storm is forecast lose its tropical characteristics and cause only minimal tidal flooding and gusty – but less than tropical storm force – winds, Shore business owners working to claw their way back to profitability since Sandy could lose a crucial early season weekend to the weather.

"The weekends are picking up pretty well, but the weekdays, not as much," said Christine Pfeister, a Wisconsin native who's working at Three Brothers From Italy pizza on the Seaside Heights boardwalk this summer.

"The weekends are our bread and butter around here," she said, adding that a weekend of miserable weather is worse at this point in the season since vacationers aren't spending full weeks at the Shore just yet.

"In this weather, thank God there are people walking around and shopping, but it could be better," said Moses Akvogan, who opened a jewelry shop on the boardwalk last month.

Akvogan agreed that good weekend weather is the key to success early in the season.

Andrea is forecast to dump between 3 and 6 inches of rain on the Florida peninsula, according to a 2 p.m. update from the National Hurricane Center. It is expected to begin affecting the weather along the New Jersey coastline by Friday morning and last into Saturday.

The National Weather Service office in Mount Holly is forecasting the potential for "very heavy rainfall" as the remnants of Andrea pass through, though little in the way of tidal flooding. Still, as much as 4 inches of rain could fall by Saturday morning, the forecast said.

Seas could reach 4 to 7 feet, making it a less-than-stellar weekend for boating and fishing.

By Sunday, however, the sun is predicted to return with a high of 79 degrees.