This day three years ago, I was hauling out the rest of our belongings and watching what was left of our home thrown to the curb. Along with neighbors and friends, our things ended up in massive piles in my neighborhood to eventually be hauled away for good all destroyed by a ***** named Sandy. It was something that I never experienced and of that magnitude. Still hard for me to fathom the amount of destruction this storm caused. It did not surprise me it was almost expected because living by the beach most of my life I always said its not a matter of if, but when. And it happens fast. I've seen through the years, water levels on the rise and storms get more intense. Always aware of flooding and what coastal storms bring but still a lot of people get caught off guard and don't heed the warning signs. Yet we still build on our coast and live on barrier beaches and why not? It's beautiful. It should be there for all to enjoy and experience but not wort losing live and homes over. Beach replenishment is just a band -aid and a wast of tax dollars. You cannot hold back the ocean with a bulldozer. I hope most are back in their homes at this point. I know most are not. I am one of many.
If you have seen "waters on the rise", you are Superman, with super eye sight. Water level rises are undetectable to the human eye. You may have detected shifts in sand bars allowing for water to flow differently, but scientifically, that is, OBJECTIVELY, no human eye can detect the OCEANS water level rising. As for storms getting worse, please explain last 2 years complete lack of storms. Just because 1 large storm veered into your much beloved New Jersey, does not mean the end of the world is coming. Live on and have fun.
I believe most people who live outside the affected areas have very little, if any, idea of the long term damage and hardship that Sandy (or other storms for that matter) caused.
I know right. Come on down south, we know about real hurricanes. Hell Sandy was a Cat 1 when she hit. I'm sorry for those who lost homes, family and other property but I have never seen a group of people ***** for so long about something as these NJ folks have about Sandy, oh I'm sorry SUPER Storm Sandy. The issue in NJ/NY was it had been so long since any real hit that people crept closer to the shore, development caused there to be less protection by the dunes and then lots of the homes had basements. Who builds basements at the coast? In NC you will not find many basements east of I-95 as this is the area hurricanes come through and cause flooding. Learn from this storm and rebuild accordingly.
Hey DonnyQ- sorry to hear that your not back on your home yet. It's hard to imagine the mess, distruction and displacement that miss Sandy caused. I remember my first views after coming out of my in laws house and traveling back to check our house. Thankful we where ok- but our neighbors, friends and neighborhoods where a mess. That's when the sad work started of helping ppl clean up and clean out thier houses. I remember that I had access to this big trash pump from a pool co I worked for- and started driving around Belmar - pumping people's basements out. So sad times. Days without homes for some, electric for the rest and many without heat. Oh yea- forget about gas- it became a normal part of your day hunting out which gas station was open and waiting in line. It really felt like we where living in a war zone for a while- like everything blew up and we are trying to clean up. I think if we could say that if anything good came out of it was the coming together as a community and helping each other out. DonQ what town where you living in?
The issue wasn't that we tried to live closer to the water- our coast looks the same as any other on the east coast. The issue was that sandy made a direct turn toward us and happen to make land fall on a high tide with a full moon. It wasn't so much the winds and rains- it was the flooding and storm surge. I had a friend that lived 6 blocks from the beach and he tells a story of hearing the sounds of rushing waters and looked out side to see a SURGE of 5ft hi water coming down the street. This happen pretty much everywhere , specially near lakes and inlets that have been here for ever. I do agree- that people living on barrier islands and such really have no excuse- what do you expect?? But people living blocks from the beach that had thier homes flooded then had towns evacuated for what seemed 3 months only to come back to houses filled with sand and mold. It was a sad time for many.
Here's what the north end of my local barrier island looks like at high tide: [/IMG] And at the south end of the same island? New houses going up right on top of the sand dune.
But inland flooding happens all the time with canes. Look at SC right now, New Orleans after Katrina, NC after Fran, Floyd, Dennis, Hugo, Etc. In Fran and Floyd we had flooding in areas 100 miles from the coast. Every river and stream east of I-95 flooded in Floyd. 135 migrant workers drown in eastern NC because their campsites in the woods were near water sources. My point is that what happened in NJ/NY is no different than what has occurred in dozens of other areas. However with Sandy we have heard about it for 3 years, had numerous benefits and concerts for the area and had locals act like the 2nd cuming of Wayne's damn messiah was happening.
This^^ I'm sorry about the your losses Don, been through many storms and my family lost a lot as well. Humanity gets complacent, then nature humbles us. As surfers, our complacency and humbling comes at a short interval, usually with minimal consequence. Example: I get complacent surfing wind slop, and get humbled by a powerful wave on a shallow sandbar. For society as a whole, the interval is much longer and the humbling comes on a much more destructive scale.
Yeah, I stay about a half mile south of that picture (Ships Watch) when I'm down there visiting my son and my friends who live in Hampstead.They replenished it what, like 2 years ago? Now you can barely walk to the New River Inlet at even low tide.
Flooding does happen. But your talking about these storms like they happen all the time... The flooding in SC is terrible. By the news coverage, it seems pretty devastating. There's movies and tv shows about Katrina Hugo was was another monster. You continue to hear about sandy because so many are still out of their homes. It took my family a year and a half to get their money and they are lucky to have gotten it that quick
and that's why insurance companies are raising rates, making you raise your home, or just plain ole dropping coastal properties, cause SLR is not real
so you missed the point you made no one cares about a migrant camp drowning, srsly but sandy was mega expensive and had an effect on more (rich) people as the north is more densely populated with (more) mansions on the beach
First off, I want to wish all the EC residents who suffered through Sandy my condolences and best wishes. It was a helluva storm that was made worse by a series of uncontrollable events, and it takes a lot of time, money, patience and teamwork to overcome an event like that. Personally, I believe that NJ has done a great job of picking up the pieces and rebuilding... One needs to look no further than Nawlins after Katrina to get an example of how *not* to handle such a catastrophe. Before anybody starts chewing my a$$ about demographics, geography, government or storm size, I am fully aware of all those variants...I'm only drawing a comparison for illustration. Another factor that I believe made Sandy worse is the population density of the affected area. Yes, it's not wise to have basements at the beach and yes, when's the last time NJ got hit by a big one. But let's face it, if Sandy would've landed at Folly or Tybee, it wouldn't have had nearly the same financial and personal impact. Say what you want about their fat Republican Governor or our lame liberal President, but the response to Sandy by the residents of NJ has been admirable against extremely adverse conditions. Now, when that gigantic earthquake and subsequent tsunami that everyone has predicted finally wipes us off the map over here on the Westside, I don't want to hear any of youse guys beeyatching about your pu$$y ' canes. Godspeede and good luck DonQ.
I lived in the Highlands. Which is an oxymoron because us morons only live 2 ft above sea level. Again, it came as no surprise when they where predicting 7-10 ft storm surge, then I knew I was going to get washed. The year before was Irene, with only a 4 ft surge which gave me an inch of water inside the house. Came up through the floor. Sandy put 5 ft of water in my first floor. Came in everywhere. My point is that barrier beaches are there for a reason , to protect the main land from ocean surge and breaking waves which cause way more damage to oceanfront properties. They will never hold back water. That is out of anybody's control. People that own homes on the beachfront should feel privileged to have such a great location but don't try to keep people off something you don't really own anyway. Good fortune to all. It's been a rough three for most.
I feel for everyone who went through Sandy.I thought after Hugo people would not want to build on the barrier islands here. Boy was I wrong. The developers saw it as a clean slate. Now instead of little beach cottages they build Mcmansions even closer to the beach and creeks and other low areas. Only a matter of time. You can't control mother nature.
Oh yea, and it always makes me laugh and even a little sad when people say it never floods here or that was a hundred year storm and it can't happen again. Think again!
No, it isn't the end of the world, but sea levels are rising and flooding is increasing. 409% increase in flooding since the 60's in Charleston is nothing to laugh about. http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/...29/worst-flooding-still-to-come-as-tide-grows The groups that study this here have measure a 1ft 9in rise in the last 100 years. It sucks, but there is not much we can do about it. I wish officials would actually use data for once to determine where developers are permitted to build. We need to back dat a55 up from the water.
