20 weeks later, still a wreck
After arriving at a couple of reporting assignments with smeared mascara, I've learned that anytime I have to drive through the wreckage that was once among the most quaint Jersey Shore beach towns, I have to steel myself against what I'm about to see again . or I'll just completely lose it.
20 weeks later, still a wreck
MANTOLOKING - After arriving at a couple of reporting assignments with smeared mascara, I've learned that anytime I have to drive through the wreckage that was once among the most quaint Jersey Shore beach towns, I have to steel myself against what I'm about to see again . or I'll just completely lose it.
In 34 years of reporting the news, I've seen some horrific stuff, but nothing quite compares to the wholesale devastation wrought Oct. 29 by Superstorm Sandy. The scenes remain jaw-dropping nearly 20 weeks after the storm hit.
Along sections of Route 35 through Ortley Beach, Normandy Beach, up through Bay Head and back into this town that was once an enclave of cedar shake cottages lovingly passed down through generations of families and opulent beachfront estates one more grand then the next, the destruction is staggering.
Entire homes ripped from their foundations and slammed up against the house across the street. Others where the flooding and winds made the walls collapse into themselves like a house of cards. Rooftops blown off and deposited on the beach a half block way. Buildings so shredded they look as if they were blown to smithereens in an explosion.
Not far from where waves are breaking around the infamous roller coaster that slid off the Seaside Heights boardwalk and into the sea during the storm, it's like a theme park horror ride as drivers rubberneck through a section of Normandy Beach where a scorched landscape of smashed houses, burned trees and upended vehicles appears on both sides of the roadway. It looks like the after-attack scene from a science fiction disaster film.
But it's very real. And all of it the handiwork of Sandy, a storm so powerful and that casts a memory so ugly that people around here who are named Sandy are coming up with other derivatives for their moniker.
Left over from last summer, in the window of an old Mantoloking beach house that looks a little weather-beaten, a sign notes the place is "Celebrating 132 Summers." It makes one wonder whether there will be a 133rd year here . and whether there will be anything to celebrate.
It'll probably take years for homeowners, contractors, utility crews, and state and municipal authorities to return the area to come semblance of normalcy. But it's the kind of scene that will remain seared into the memory of anyone who sees it up close.
...and I, as a shoobie or whatever you smug types that live down there refer to folks like me as, could care less...— flank steak- no flank steak, you COULDN'T care less. ignoramus.— eaglesfillthesky
- Yea! and the White house keeps sending money overseas. This area should have been taken care of by now. Guess no politicians live in this area.God Bless America.— 6-0 Sambo
@Amy Rosenberg: Please do a timeline comparison of restoration between the Northeast Storm of 1962 that destroyed the Shore and this storm.
I am curious as to see which one outpaced the other in cleanup and restoration. The answer will also lead us to where we are as a people and as a country. It will also point an accusing finger at big insurance and big government and loud politicians and camera hungry politicos......- Correction: This post is directed to the author of the article, Jacqueline Urgo....
- People who put million dollar homes on a barrier island do not deserve ONE RED tax cent! If an insurance company want to insure those homes, let em have at it. That entire portion of the island requires beach badges. If I have to pay to use "your beach" then I am certainly not paying to rebuild your home. The little places in Normady and Ortley will be rebuilt. they are 560 square foot bungalows that can be replaced with relative ease. I say tax dollars should be focused on places like keansburg and Union beach. The snobs from bay Head and Mantaloking can go back to their million dollar homes in Chatam and Short Hills. They just BETTER NOT COME DIGGIN IN MY POCKET.— carla commenate
20 weeks later, I still don't care— 835union- I love lamp— bhamss1
- If you have a .Heart you care fore the .People that lost everything.Help themI don,t live .But i still give what i can .They are americans' Peace— bigred46
- Clean it upa— ..Jay Grace
- The rebuild will take years, especially with FEMA helping.— 2ndNlong
- Yo, Jacqueline... "I have to steel myself against what I'm about to see again . or I'll just completely lose it."... get a grip, get off your couch and go out into the world and become a real reporter.— rex nemorensis
- Yo REX NEMORENSIS Jacqueline says in her post she has been a "real reporter" for 34 years. Why don't you be a "real" reader and get a grip and appreciate what a writer is telling us about their reporting. Isn't that the point of a blog? Maybe she come down to your job and slam the way you work.— justaphillyguy
Inquirer Staff Writer Jacqueline L. Urgo has spent every summer of her life at the Jersey Shore, and has lived there year-round for nearly 30 years, even fulfilling one of her bucket list dreams by once living in a house by the sea.
Since 1990, she has covered the waterfront for The Inquirer — from the Atlantic to the Delaware Bay shore — and some of the mainland in between. Along the way, she amassed an encyclopedic knowledge of this tear-it-down-and-build-it-back-up region, delving into the history and the hype of a place with a lot of unexpected stories to tell. Email her here: jurgo@phillynews.com.
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