Hurricane Jose's waves shut 2 of 4 Assateague beach parking lots in Va.

Hurricane Jose may have stayed hundreds of miles offshore from Assateague Island National Seashore, but the storm was close enough to leave its beaches bruised and battered.

Last week's pounding surf poured into the four public parking lots on the Virginia side of the island. Those currents carried so much sand that two of the lots and portions of a third will remain closed until as late as Memorial Day next year, said Liz Davis, chief of interpretation and education.

“It wasn’t a whole total rebuild. The clay and clamshell underneath was still intact. It was just sand overwashed. It just takes time because we don’t have any staff," she said.

The extra spaces can probably be spared since the fall is typically a time of declining attendance, Davis added.

More:Beach relocation part of final Assateague management plan

Clearing sand from the parking lots has become an offseason ritual on the south side of Assateague. In January 2016, a nor'easter forced the months-long closure of two parking lots and scoured a pair of temporary gashes in the beach.

Plans in the works long before Jose's blow call for relocating the lots 1½ miles to the north to a more-stable part of the beach. The Virginia side of the park property, managed as the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge, attracts more than 1 million visitors a year and accounts for $200 million in economic activity, according to federal estimates. 

Parking lot 1 and a portion of lot 2 were reopened within days of Jose's departure. But lots 3 and 4 were too damaged to be repaired so quickly, Davis said.

“That’s normally our quick response strategy," she said.

Additional parking is available along Beach Road and in front of the Toms Cove Visitor Center. Workers removed the changing room buildings from the beach, and relocated to lifeguard facilities from the beach adjacent to lot 3 to lot 1, she added.

Jose reached a peak as a Category 4 hurricane before weakening to Category 1 as it spun offshore from the Delmarva Peninsula. It caused headaches up and down the coastal region, breaching a dune south of Dewey Beach in Delaware and triggering a washover on the southern end of Ocean City.

More:Erosion a concern for local beaches after nor'easter

Still more storm damage may be on its way this season. Forecasters are warning that Virginia beaches face a rip current threat from Hurricane Maria as it barrels past Delmarva midweek.

Virginia's warning was in place until 8 p.m. Monday, Sept. 25. The tide is expected to reach just 6 inches shy of the minor coastal flooding level Wednesday afternoon at Chincoteague, according to the National Weather Service. 

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