Jersey Shore fixup proceeds amid lingering discord, fear
swallowed up the town on the barrier island and carved an eastwest trench that connected the ocean to the bay.
The storm reduced the Seaside Heights boardwalk, one of the area’s economic engines, to a pile of waterlogged sticks and tossed the iconic Jet Star roller coaster into the sea, making it more symbolic in death than it ever was in life.
Perhaps nowhere suffered more devastation than Ortley Beach, where all but 60 of the 2,600 homes were damaged and 200 were destroyed.
The Daily News has chronicled the plight of one of Ortley’s hardest-hit streets, Coolidge Ave., where only eight of 32 homes were rebuilt on the second anniversary of the storm.
Now, all but two of the lots contain new houses, many of them lifted 10 feet into the air.
“Thank God we’re back in, because it was a disaster,” said resident Josephine Lisica, 74, who borrowed money from her daughter to rebuild her house.The block, like many across the area, looks nothing like it did before Sandy. Gone are the quaint bungalows. In their place stand massive three- and four-story homes, some of them with boxy concrete foundations.
“The character — it’s gone,” Lisica said.
Bill Mullen, 67, moved into his new home in March 2016. To pay for the two-story, 1,200-squarefoot house, he was forced to pull $50,000 out of his savings to supplement the $150,000 federal grant he received. “It was an expensive hurricane,” quipped Mullen, a retired social worker.
He rode out the storm at a friend’s place, only to return home to discover the house his parents built in the 1950s had taken up residence nearly two blocks away. “I’m lucky,” Mullen said. “Lucky to be alive.”
The Jersey Shore’s resurgence isn’t seen only on Coolidge Ave.
After Sandy, the humble community of Vision Beach looked like it was struck by aerial bombs. Now, it’s home to handsome houses that command prices well above $600,000.
“Look at the difference — it’s unbelievable,” said resident Ray Zipfel, 59. “It’s kind of a shame that it takes a tragedy like this, but it washes away all the old and now you have all brand-new.”
Along the boardwalk in Seaside Heights and Seaside Park, all but 30 of the 170 businesses stricken by the storm — and a subsequent massive fire — were back in operation this summer.
“It’s all good for us, and looking better every day,” said Mike Loundy, the area’s director of community improvements.
The $128 million Army Corps dredging project is designed to keep it that way.
The dredges will pump 11 million cubic yards of sand along the coastline, from the southern part of Point Pleasant Beach to Island Beach State Park.
The new and improved beaches, expected to be completed by