Hurricane Sandy aftermath - New Jersey
Last Monday, good friends of mine were forced to evacuate from the duplex they rented that is located just off Raritan Bay in outer New York harbor.
This past Saturday we got back out to the house to survey damage, check on when power might be available, and also take care of some other activities such as submitting absentee ballots for the election.
Inland there were various traffic snarls and places where lanes were being coned off for purposes of traffic control due to the traffic lights not working. For instance, on NJ 36 the highway was periodically being forced into the jug-handle turns on purpose since these were also the only places where traffic was being allowed to cross the divided highway as well.
As for the duplex itself and the nearby beach here is a short photo montage.
The yard has a coating of mud and small debris and mud coats the plants along the chain link fence. Note the mud line on the wooden fence across the street.
Inside the lower floor of the duplex there is a layer of slimy mud on the floor and considerable water damage up to 3’ up the wall. The furnace and water heaters for both parts of the duplex are on this level and were sitting in this salt water bath for two days. Some things were high enough on shelves to be salvaged, but pretty much everything else here is going to end up in the trash.
The local township won’t restore power for the building until the furnace and water heaters are inspected. How quickly the land lord will have this done is unclear.
Before leaving we also took a walk over to the beach to see if we could find where the storm surge breached the dune line. As it turned out one of the spots was only just over a block away.
The surge destroyed a 6’ tall dune and then flooded through a lower spot to reach the street level leaving a thick plume of sand running into the street.
And we close with a look across the bay.