Tamer H2Oi Weekend Reported In Ocean City; Service Calls, Traffic Stops, Citations All Declined

OCEAN CITY — Despite the blowing rain, gusting winds, flooded streets, road closures and deteriorating driving conditions, they came anyway.

The annual H2O International (H2Oi) event is one local law enforcement and residents circle on the calendar each fall, but the conventional thinking heading into the weekend was the Nor’easter camped off the coast of the resort and the ominous potential arrival of Hurricane Joaquin would deter the crowds of tricked-out Volkswagons, Audis and other sports cars of all makes and models. Contrary to that belief, thousands of them arrived.

The H2Oi event started to make its presence felt by mid-week, and by Friday afternoon, traffic along Coastal Highway looked similar to the Fourth of July right after the fireworks. Tens of thousands of vehicles, a large percentage of which were H2Oi-type cars, crept along inch by inch and block by block. There were a handful of accidents, most of which appeared to be of the fender-bender, rear-ender variety, but there was a vehicle on fire Saturday on Coastal Highway that required the Ocean City Fire Department and a large number of burnouts up and down the island, but by and large, despite the size of the crowd, they were slightly better behaved this year, according to Ocean City Police spokesperson Lindsay Richard this week.

More