WOW! It was just one month ago since Super Storm Sandy targeted the Jersey Coast. I live and work in Ocean County NJ. The office and my home are within a mile of Barnegat Bay and have never been as scared as I was the night that Sandy came ashore!
The day after was undescribable... and the pictures you have seen do no justice to actually being here! Living for 6 days without electric, internet or cell service was, to say the least, a challenge!
The aftermath has brought us to our knees. Homes destroyed and the families displaced. Cars,trucks and boats lost. Business put out of business. Our Beaches washed away; piers and boardwalks gone. The famous Seaside Amusement Park will never again be the same!
As a local Realtor I have been through many homes flooded out and severly damaged by the Ocean surges. At first I was just in awe and then overwhelmed and enormously grateful that I was alive and hadn't lost much on a personal level. To walk thru, touch the devastation caused by Super Storm Sandy leave me somewhat speechless!
As the initial days passed our offices started being inundated with calls and people coming in asking for help finding immediate, temporary housing. Local religious establishments and schools were designated as emergency shelters. Streets riddled with FEMA trucks filled with engineers and workers, red cross emergency relief vehicles, local police, EMS and firetrucks. Some areas looked like a wet war zone. Long gas lines and empty grocery stores. Speradic internet and cell service and many local businesses shut down.
A month after and now the landscape is consumed by contractor trucks, FEMA trucks, Red Cross Emergency Relief trucks, police, EMS and firetrucks. Bucket trucks from every state you can think of driving around repairing power lines. Bright green Serve-Pro trucks everywhere. Large dumpster trucks and flatbeds with garbage dumpsters filled to the brim driving past the office in a caravan. Tow trucks pulling cars, trucks and boats destroyed by the flood waters. Driveways filled with furniture, appliances and all kinds of personal property tossed from houses. Trees yanked out from the roots, big 30-40 foot high trees, branches snapped off and street signs laying on the ground.
Soon we will have hauled off everything damaged by the storm and then we will start the tedious job of rebuilding, replacing what was destroyed with new. New that is bigger and better and stronger; but not the same. The Jersey Shore will never look the same. Don't pitty us, send donations, pitch in and help us out and if you can't do anything else, keep us in your prayers.
We are Jersey strong and we will survive.
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