A lot of people want to know why Island Beach State Park’s sewers backed up over the weekend, sending thousands of beachgoers scrambling to find other spots to enjoy the weather.

Restrictions remained in place on Monday because of the ongoing problems.

“It was catastrophic. It was utterly ridiculous. They should have called a porta-potty company, had them down here in an hour and business as usual,” said Jerry Rotonda, a Seaside Park councilman and owner of Bum Rogers and Berkeley Cut Steakhouse.

Rotonda expected busy crowds but was left frustrated after an already difficult early summer season.

“My daytime revenues were down; my nighttime revenues were up 60% over last year, so you can see the impact. People drove around for hours looking for parking spaces,” he said.

A spokesperson from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection tells News 12 that backed-up sewer lines caused the issues starting on Saturday, limiting the number of working bathrooms. The DEP said folks should follow future updates on the state parks' social media pages. But some had not been updated since Sunday morning.

“I had people coming to my house asking if they could use my bathroom. That’s just excessive. That’s my granddaughter’s first Fourth of July. She’s 7 weeks old. It was just really out of hand, people parking in the medians down here,” said Guy Madsen, who lives two blocks from the entrance.

Many of the people turned away from Island Beach State Park found themselves at the four blocks of public beaches owned and operated by Berkeley Township. Badge checkers tell News 12 they sold out of dailies all three days.

Lt. Brian Lloyd, of the Berkeley Township Beach Patrol, says they were prepared and more than ready for large crowds and no incidents were reported by the excessive amount of people looking to enjoy the holiday weekend. But outside the gates and on the streets, a different story unfolded, with locals like Madsen wanting answers.

“It would have been great to see some leadership from our top leader who was actually in the park at the time, and it was crickets,” said Madsen.

The DEP could not accommodate News 12's request for an interview with staff members at the park and would not provide any further information on the ongoing sewer line issues inside.