It’s been nearly 3 months since Hurricane Sandy landed at the Jersey Shore and tore apart our coast from end to end. In some ways I’m amazed to see how far the recovery efforts have come. The debris that littered streets everywhere in my own neighborhood was cleaned up quickly. Traffic lights that were shredded from so many posts were replaced. The kids were back in school and contractors have never been busier with work. The new inlet in Mantaloking was filled in with sand at an attempt to rebuild the earth. I have stopped seeing the trucks from the American Red Cross at every corner and life was getting back to normal. For me anyway.
It doesn’t take a long drive down the street to quickly realize just how lucky my own neighborhood was. Less than a mile from my home entire neighborhoods were destroyed. Family still displaced, staying with friends or renting homes closer inland. But even our town faired better than others. Just a few miles up the coast still looks like day one from Hurricane Sandy’s landfall. Even 3 months later.
I recently visited the boardwalk at Seaside Heights. My first time since this session here just 4 days before the storm. The last piece of fudge still sits in it’s plastic waiting to be replaced one day.
I wanted to see for myself how far along it had come and not just by pictures in the news.
Just coming off the bridge I was met with the big Army trucks once again, a familiar greeting from where I visited LBI for the first time since it reopened, which I wrote about here. Police vehicles were stationed at every corner, my guess was to prevent looters from entering all of the empty and gutted homes. It was a ghost town. Too many houses had a bright pink letter hanging on it from being condemned. Almost every, single, one. There was a ton of activity from construction vehicles and filled dumpsters everywhere. Not that they were usable because the debris still stacked a story high on every street. There were not enough dumpster for even one block.
The initial outpour of volunteers and donations has quieted down. I saw this flyer in Home Depot the other day and thought I would pass it along to those who need it. Help is still available, as is the opportunities to volunteer. And likely will be for a long time. Please consider reaching out to someone in your community and pass this information along. Thank you. 🙂
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