Manasquan Still 'Not Fully Back' 1 Year After Sandy
MANASQUAN, N.J. (CBSNewYork) - A project is slated to begin later this week to replenish some of the Jersey Shore beaches destroyed by superstorm Sandy.
As WCBS 880's Sean Adams reported, there is a mixture of progress and work still to be done in Manasquan one year after the storm hit.
"We're coming back. We're not fully back by any means, there's still people not in their houses, still people looking for FEMA money, looking for flood insurance money," Mayor George Dempsey told Adams. "There's been a total of 83 houses to date that either have been taken down or will be taken down shortly."
Manasquan Still 'Not Fully Back' 1 Year After Sandy
Sandy flooded 1,400 homes in Manasquan, Adams reported.
On Thursday, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will begin its beach replenishment project that will stretch from Manasquan up to Belmar.
Sand dredged offshore will be pumped onto the beach. Dempsey said he hopes to have new dunes within a year as well.
"I have to get the dune to protect our homeowners," said Dempsey. "The height is not important, it's the width and the slope of it. It's about 40 feet wide, six to eight feet tall."
Communities that had dunes before Sandy hit fared far better than those left unprotected, Adams reported.
'CHANGE THE NAME FROM LONG BEACH TO STRONG BEACH'
In Long Beach, there was a major step in the road to recovery on Friday when the newly reconstructed boardwalk reopened.
But as WCBS 880 Long Island Bureau Chief Mike Xirinachs reported, a lot more rebuilding is still needed in the hard hit Long Island community.
Long Beach Recovery 1 Year Later
"On a scale of one to ten, about 12," resident Jamie Tafflow said. "No water or electricity. No elevators, no phones."
The city is still without an operational hospital or movie theater and many businesses and homes remain vacant.
"Sand covered the streets, houses were off foundations, trucks were upended. The magnitude was unbelievable," Long Beach City Council President Scott Mandell told Xirinachs. "The damage was devastating from every corner of the city. But looking now on what is almost a year later, it's incredible the strides that we've made and the homeowners have made and the businesses have made."
Residents noted that rebuilding the iconic boardwalk has been just one part of the major recovery effort over the past year in the shorefront community.
"We're going to change the name from Long Beach to Strong Beach," Tafflow said.
HOBOKEN PLANNING FOR FUTURE STORMS
Business is mostly back in Hoboken, which was under water after Sandy roared ashore.
As WCBS 880's Levon Putney reported, Hoboken Beer & Soda Outlet was inundated with water and mud after the storm.
Life Back To Normal In Hoboken Following Sandy
Owner Jim Mignoli said he had to throw out 7,000 cases of beverages - part of the $200,000 in losses his business sustained.
"In 38 years, we'd never experienced a drop of water," he told Putney. "We'll never make up for it but you know, we move on."
Mignoli had a backup generator installed during the Y2K scare which helped him get back to business shortly after Sandy.
Other businesses weren't as fortunate and had to shutter because of the storm.
"We have a pump that definitely helped and we want to add three more pumps," Mayor Dawn Zimmer said.
She said the city is looking into installing a barrier system to prevent the Hudson River from overflowing its banks again.
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