REMEMBERING SANDY The Daily Targum takes a look at the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy
THE DAILY TARGUM / FEBRUARY 2013
Remembering Sandy Page 2
Revisiting Superstorm Sandy: One year later
October 29, 2013 By Julian Chokkattu News Editor
In the days leading up to Oct. 29, 2012, dark gray skies loomed over rustling trees and fluttering leaves on the Rutgers-New Brunswick campus as wind picked up speed. Students left for their hometowns, while others, as well as residents in surrounding communities, stocked up on emergency supplies and holed up in their homes and residence halls. The word Sandy seemed to roll off every tongue. On Oct. 29, Hurricane Sandy made landfall on the shores of South Jersey, creating widespread destruction and causing around 147 direct deaths, according to the National Hurricane Center’s Tropical Cyclone Report. Superstorm Sandy is the second costliest hurricane to hit the United States since 1900, with damage estimates more than $65 billion, according to the National Climate Data Center. The storm was classified as a post-tropical cyclone when it reached New Jersey, but its size caused the destruction of at least 650,000 houses and left around 8.5 million people without power, according to a service assessment from the U.S. Department of Commerce. Ellis Island’s reopening yesterday attests to the heavy damage the storm caused one year ago.
Changing climate opens new discussions in NJ State Climatologist David Rob- sume it will be a long time before inson believes New Jersey’s cli- another Sandy happens. It has mate is changing. He said the last the potential to become more frefew decades in New Jersey have quent in the future. “We can’t assume, in terms of been the warmest, and the state is getting wetter, with heavy rainfall these storms, by seeing what’s happening in the past,” he said. events increasing in number. “If I were to pick out four “We’re working with a new deck things, it would be warmer tem- of cards.” In terms of forecasting, he peratures, somewhat slightly wetter conditions, rainfall comes said the Sandy forecast was “brilin more heavy events and the sea liant,” as it picked up the storm level is slowly rising,” Robinson several days before the storm hit said. “It has risen a foot in the the East Coast. “It forecasted the very unusulast centur y.” What is happening in the state al track,” he said. “There were can be seen around the world, very good observations from the Robinson said, with mostly ev- ground, aircrafts, and satellites. er ywhere getting warmer and The data is input into forecast sea levels rising. One indicator is models, which are better than the sea ice melting in the Arctic ever. We’re learning more and the Ocean more extensively during forecasts should continue to improve as we have more complete the summer. “There is no question that San- information going into them.” Although forecasts can alert dy would have been a somewhat different storm without climate and prepare people quicker and change for the very reason that could possibly save more lives, sea level wasn’t higher a century Robinson said it is not possible to ago,” he said. “The reason for that prevent the storm itself. “There’s a lot of lessons to be is glaciers are melting and water learned in how is getting warmwe redevelop er, which made and how we coastal flooding live with nature conditions a lit“Getting worldwide better along the tle worse.” coordination for an coast,” he said. Although effective policy across “A lot of major the rising sea countries like China and economic, polevel, increased litical, cultural atmospheric India has been a and environmoisture and challenging task.” mental deciwarmer temsions have to peratures addJoseph Seneca be made there. ed more fuel to Professor in the Edward J. Bloustein School We’ve got a the fire during of Planning and Public Policy ways to go with Sandy, the rest that but at least of what climate the dialogue change would has opened.” have done is The state has discussed buildmore speculative, he said. “It is very difficult to extract ing sea walls and sand dunes to the precise quantitative signal of protect the shoreline, but Robhow much warmer it was due to inson believes these are merely human activity,” he said. “We can stopgap measures. “I’m not familiar with all the gather it on a general sense, but in a day-to-day sense it’s not go- costs or engineering options, but ing to be possible to extract the at this point it’s a stopgap meahuman component from that, but sure,” he said. “Ultimately the there is always some level of a hu- ocean is going to win out, but in the short term if the powers that man component.” As unusual as Hurricane San- be feel that it is worth that battle, dy was, Robinson said it was not I could easily say, ‘No we don’t completely unique, as there were want this, let’s just let nature take other storms that have made sim- its course,’ but it is unrealistic in New Jersey.” ilar impacts. According to The New York “For sure, it would have been a strong storm surge without hu- Times, the borough of Bradley mans impacting the climate,” he Beach, N.J. was protected by said. “It would have been a strong sand dunes. “When Hurricane Sandy came, storm without the ocean and atmospheric temperatures being the force of the waves flattened the warmer. What climate change did dunes but left the town’s Boardwalk and the houses just 75 feet is amplify it.” And it could happen again. from it intact,” the article read. Before Sandy, several commuRobinson said people should have their guard up and should not as- nities, such as the Township of
THE DAILY TARGUM / FEBRUARY 2013
THE DAILY TARGUM / NOVEMBER 2012
Top: The destruction of Hurricane Sandy one year ago destroyed more than 650,000 homes. Bottom: The Rutgers-New Brunswick campus faced heavy rainfall and winds, forcing its shutdown for a week. Long Beach, protested against the construction of sand dunes due to the damage done to the ocean’s aesthetic value. But the damage done after Sandy has left more communities considering construction of the dunes, according to the article. Robinson said these stopgap measures to armor the shorelines only address the problem on the coastal front and does not explain the inner wet lands and bays. On Thursday, the U.S. Department of the Interior announced funding to provide $113 million for 25 on-the-ground projects to “restore coastal marshes, wetlands and shoreline, create habitat connectivity, improve flood resilience and undertake other efforts to protect nearby areas from future storms.” About $15 million will be spent to protect communities along 60
miles of the New Jersey coast by restoring and enhancing salt marshes, according to the U.S. Department of the Interior’s website. “It’s such a complex issue,” Robinson said. “It would be really easy if no one lived there. … The wish is to push toward the mainland, but the train’s left the station. We have a highly developed coastline and we’re not going to abandon that soon.” Joseph Seneca, a professor in the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, said it is impossible to affect the frequency and severity of storms, as they are a part of a complex interaction between natural weather systems and climate change factors. “Going for ward, [the policy system should be to] reduce the likelihood of flooding, stop rebuilding in some areas, retreat from repeatedly damaged areas,
rebuild smarter, reposition and move from areas of high risk,” he said. But the more difficult challenge is to tackle climate change globally. Seneca said the world has to reduce the rate of carbon emissions into the atmosphere, which in turn slows down the rate of global warming. The U.S. is attempting to reduce the amount of emissions from coal and fire utility plants, and the European Union has a cap and trade system, which Seneca said limits carbon emissions and creates market incentives for businesses to reduce emissions. “Getting worldwide coordination for an effective policy across countries like China and India has been a challenging task for the United Nations but it is something that has to be continued to be work[ed] on,” he said.
October 29, 2013
Remembering Sandy Page 3
Professor talks risks of living near coast “When I go down to the shore The shore is no longer a setting for books like Ernest Hem- … I don’t see just nature as a lot ingway’s “The Old Man and the of people would, but I see histoSea,” where a fisherman battles r y,” he said. “And with the trained a large marlin. Rather, TV shows eye, what I see when I look at the like “Jersey Shore” have contrib- shore is human evolution and the uted to the image of the beach as enormous changes which have occurred over ver y long periods a popular recreational space. Rutgers Professor Emeritus of of time.” Up to the 19th centur y, Gillis Histor y John Gillis agrees. “The shore provides something said humans were drawn to the no other landscape provides, and coast for the best kind of living that is a horizon,” he said. “A hori- they could aspire to, as the coast zon where you look out and you has an abundance of food, seacan see nothing, you can see only weed, shellfish and an extremely what you imagine to be a horizon, rich environment, which huntand a horizon has become to peo- er-gatherers had explored for tens of thousands of years. ple a kind of liberation.” Then, instead of people beThe sea view is the most valuable property in the world, he said. ing drawn to the shore to earn a “It’s not the land the house is living, he said the people sitting on, it’s the view that you who began to travel to the have that makes it incredibly re- shore were not looking for work, alistic,” Gillis said. “No previous but romanticism. “The idea was that the sea had generation ever purchased their houses on basis of the view it pro- a special spiritual and aesthetic vided. Now that’s commonplace.” power, that it was awesome, it was According to a report from sublime, something you wanted to go out and the National experience,” Oceanic and said. “Then Atmospheric “You look out and you can he it became a Administration, see nothing, you can see spot for popular 52 percent, or 163.8 million, of only what you imagine to recreation and Americans lived be a horizon, and a horizon c o n s u m p t i o n by the end of in 673 coasthas become to people a the 19th centual counties in kind of liberation.” r y.” 2010. As the 20th Gillis has JOHN GILLIS centur y began, taught at RutProfessor Emeritus of History the building of gers for almost beaches and 40 years in the the construcDepartment of Histor y. He retired seven years tion of elite resorts, which then ago and moved to California, expanded into popular resorts, where he lives in Berkeley near led people to want to live by the sea, instead of visiting while on the shore. His book “The Human Shore: vacation, he said. “The shore has been completeSeacoasts in Histor y,” explains how most people look upon ly altered,” he said. “Fishermen shores as natural phenomenon, and the workers have disappeared. whereas he looks at shores as Now we have landlubbers on the the product of human and natural shore that know the least about it. interaction — the interface be- In other words, it’s what we call coastal amnesia — people who tween the land and the sea.
John Gillis, professor emeritus of history, said the beach has become a romanticized recreational space. The view of the horizon is what is valuable, as opposed to the land. JULIAN CHOKKATTU / NEWS EDITOR
have no idea about the environment they are encountering and are always surprised about when things like Sandy come along.” Education of the effects of the shore and living with nature is important to Gillis. “I think we need a lot more education, a lot more intelligent discussion in the uses of coasts, and that has been largely missing because, for example, in my field of history the coast is a sort of empty vacuum, a hole in the historical curriculum,” he said. With no real education, Gillis said people are going to raise their houses higher and higher in a race against inevitability. Ideas like putting up storm barriers and sea walls will not solve anything. “There are possibilities of building some innovative floating cities, which will literally ride out the storms, but I think the strong sense of putting up a storm barrier across the entry of New York Harbor is absolutely nonsense,” he said. “That’s somebody waiting to make a profit.” Gillis believes storms seem to bring out a sense of militarism
among people as well, alluding to the militarized rhetoric surrounding hurricanes. All summer, Gov. Chris Christie said, “We’re stronger than the storm,” in TV commercials aiming to stir tourism at the Jersey shore. “We see them as the enemy,” Gillis said. “The language of climatologists for too long has been militarized language, like ‘battling storms,’ or ‘fending off the invasion of the water.’ It confuses the public and produces a strange type of what one might call patriotism. We wave flags in the face of hurricanes. It’s just absurd.” Going back to education, Gillis said Rutgers should create a course on the coast and the ocean in its core curriculum for all firstyear students. “I don’t see why Rutgers … shouldn’t have this knowledge foregrounded in the curriculum,” he said. “You know this is a public service, my god, you spend 1/10 of the football program’s money on educating them on what the state is facing, and you would get a much greater return on that.”
One year ago, Hurricane Sandy swept across the Eastern seaboard. The Rutgers-New Brunswick campus was shut down for a week, and currently, according to The New York Times, at least 26,000 people are still out of their homes. Gillis said in the wake of the anniversary, it is important not just to remember the event itself. “If you knew you had an episode of cancer, you had some cancerous growth on your body, you wouldn’t just remember that and forget it,” he said. “You would go into the deeper processes of how that cancer came to be there and what caused it, for example, smoking.” He said after learning the cause, a person would take the lessons learned and would apply it more generally to stop smoking. “It is possible to remember that we are obser ving a deeply human process here,” he said. “A process which humans have put themselves at risk and canned through their will and can remove themselves from … if they wish to do so.”
Houses along the shore in Union Beach, NJ, are still cluttered with debris and are fenced off awaiting demolition or redevelopment. JULIAN CHOKKATTU / NEWS EDITOR
Remembering Sandy Page 4
October 29, 2013
Federal red tape slows Sandy recovery in NJ The sound of the ocean breez- and homeowner’s insurance, es through empty lots, where and so the work they are doing houses once lay in the borough of is to of fset the unmet needs that Union Beach, N.J. Rubble and flat are not covered. According to the U.S. Census land occupy spaces between rows of houses. Some streets have a Bureau, the estimated population of Union Beach, N.J. in 2012 was few houses placed on cribbing. And while reminiscent gray 6,211. In 2010, the borough had clouds pass above, a group of vol- more than 2,269 housing units unteers in an assembly line sepa- and the median household income rate asphalt and concrete on top of from 2007 to 2011 was $65,654. Edward Niskey, a resident of a recently demolished house. The volunteers, who are from Union Beach, said when Sandy Johnson & Johnson, paired up hit, he had already evacuated, but with the Gateway Church of Christ his neighbor’s house was gone and his house and United Way was flooded of Monmouth with nearly 5 County to help “In Union Beach itself feet of water. homeowners who do not have there are over 2,000 homes He was at one of the highest the resources to either damaged or points in the do the work on destroyed by Sandy.” community. their own, said “If you look Eric Levin, volERIC LEVIN the other way unteer construcVolunteer Construction Manager at … down toward tion manager United Way of Monmouth County the school, at United Way they were acof Monmouth tually flooded. County. The demolished house on An- You can see all the houses being derson Street in Union Beach, raised and all the empty lots,” N.J., is one example of a home- he said. “There’s like 200 to 250 owner not receiving enough mon- houses [like that].” Houses are raised to build new ey from insurance companies to foundations, said Paul Huhn, ownrebuild a home. “What we do at United Way er and partner at M.O.I. Enterprisis we foster volunteer efforts es LLP. Huhn was working on a to help with the rebuilding of raised house on Edmunds Avenue. “After the house goes in the air, homes post Sandy,” Levin said. “In Union Beach itself, there are we get what’s called the base flood over 2,000 homes either dam- elevation from FEMA,” he said. aged or destroyed by Sandy, ”Once we get the BFE, we deterwithin the last two months there mine how high the house has to have been approximately 200 go. In many cases around here we have to put new footings in.” houses demolished.” But there have been multiple He said next week he is supposed to be getting more volun- issues surrounding the base flood teers from Johnson & Johnson elevation numbers received from and some from KPMG and FedEx. FEMA, which Robert Burlew, a Mike Harrington, Levin’s floodplain administrator for Union counterpar t from Ocean County, Beach, thinks is working from the N.J., said there was not enough wrong map. In the cramped of fice of money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency the borough of Union Beach’s
Top: Edward Niskey, a resident of Union Beach, NJ, said his house was flooded with about 5 feet of water. Bottom: Joe Martinelli, a worker at M.O.I. Enterprises, lays a foundation for a raised house to prevent future flooding. JULIAN CHOKKATTU / NEWS EDITOR
Houses are being raised to set foundations based on the base flood elevations received by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. JULIAN CHOKKATTU / NEWS EDITOR
October 29, 2013 construction administrators, the total estimated cost of work problems seem to arise one after done is $28,986,791. The total number of homes demolished is the other. Ever y minute or so, residents 250. Ninety two homes are being come in asking for permits, raised and new home construcwhich Burlew said he cannot tion is at 88. The word “funding” seems to give, as construction workers are working with the wrong base roll off people’s tongues as much as Sandy. Cliff Gray, treasurer and flood elevations. “Everyone’s now ‘let’s build deacon of the Gateway Church of higher, let’s build stronger.’ … Christ, believes that funding is the If we didn’t know some of these one thing that always limits the rethings, we would have a lot of mis- building process. “In this town, 85 percent of the takes,” he said. Burlew said initially the per- homes received some damage,” ception was a two to four year Gray said. “This is a community time span for recovery efforts in of 2,200 homes. A lot of people Union Beach. After attending a are staying at Fort Monmouth, and there are class in Atlantic people living in City two weeks in ago, he said ex“No town out of the nine apartments the area, which perts who came communities got hit like is an additional from Florida burden because said it would be this because of the size of between five to it. They have million dollar they’re paying rent and their eight years. budgets, our budget mortgage.” “It’s going to is $66,000.” The Gatebe a long time way Church of for us because Robert Burlew Christ, which bewe just don’t Floodplain Administrator gan volunteering have the staff in Union Beach and there’s not on Nov. 1, 2012, enough people that know flood management,” he has brought in about $2.5 million said. “We’re already working sev- worth of supplies and food. They en days a week … and there’s not have also received donations from enough floodplain managers step- a number of different organizations. “We’ve been able to get buildping up to the plate.” He said Union Beach lost 903 ing equipment from Home Depot, homes and there are 900 houses Lowes and Habitat for Humanity,” that have to be raised in the area. he said. “And then also the volunCurrently they have taken down teers, that’s been a big portion of it. This past summer we hosted around 250 houses. “The rest of them have to be 16,400 volunteers that worked raised or have to come down and in the entire bay, shore region, there’s no money for them,” he which is about a 10-mile stretch of said. “Until that money and that this area.” But when asked about progfunding is back into that area, all these [houses] have to come out.” ress, Gray does not spread Burlew said about 50 percent of much optimism. “The progress there is some houses in Union Beach have to be removed. Most residents who lost progress, but honestly it’s a small their homes are still living in Fort amount, we’re projecting someMonmouth, in cars, trailers, other where between five and seven people’s homes or with neighbors. years before we feel that it will get “This could have been avoided back to a point where we would with better preparations and bet- expect it to be,” he said. A part of the reason is waiting ter planning,” he said. “No town out of the nine communities got for grant funding, but another part hit like this because of the size of of the problem is the insurance it. They have million dollar bud- companies that have not been forthcoming to homeowners with gets, our budget is $66,000.” Of the few staff that was money needed to rebuild, he said. “There are many homeowners there, a flustered Burlew said ever y one of them was from the who are facing that issue where county or from the state, and he they received some money but it’s was the only employee working nowhere near enough to get them where they need to be,” he said. for the borough. And while the grant process “Right now, why don’t they just takes a long time, the Gateway give me some help?” he said. According to a report from Church is focused on getting peothe construction administrators ple back into their homes as fast of Union Beach for October 2013, as possible.
Remembering Sandy Page 5
Top: Volunteers from Johnson & Johnson help the Gateway Church of Christ in separating asphalt and concrete for homeowners without the resources to do it themselves. Bottom: Residents of Union Beach, NJ still live in trailers, cars, or with neighbors. JULIAN CHOKKATTU / NEWS EDITOR
Left: Volunteers from Johnson & Johnson help the Gateway Church of Christ with separating asphalt and concrete on top of a demolished house. The work they do offsets the unmet needs faced by many homeowners after Sandy. Right: Rows of houses were scattered with empty houses or developing houses in Union Beach, NJ. JULIAN CHOKKATTU / NEWS EDITOR
Remembering Sandy Page 6
October 29, 2013
Angelita Liaguno-Dorr moved her restaurant to a temporary location after her business was destroyed by Superstorm Sandy. Her new location does not attract the same business she received while her restaurant, Jakeabob’s Bay, was on the beach. JULIAN CHOKKATTU / NEWS EDITOR
Lack of insurance money may force closure of Union Beach restaurant Right on the shoreline in Union Beach is an empty space with a sign that reads, “Jakeabob’s Bay insured by Lloyds of London for $1.2 million. Offered $9,657.14, Deductible $10,000.00. Thanks for nothing!” What used to be Angelita Liaguno-Dorr’s restaurant, Jakeabob’s Bay, has been nothing but an empty lot for a year. Liaguno-Dorr, who ever yone calls “Gigi,” opened a temporary location a few streets near her old site. She said the restaurant is named after her two sons, Jake and Bobby. “I’ve been in business in town since 1989,” she said. “I’ve had that location for 14 years so it’s the spot that I chose because I love the area and I love the views.” After Hurricane Sandy hit, Liaguno-Dorr said the borough looked like a warzone. “Three quarters of the building was gone,” she said. “When we were driving into town we were driving over hot water heaters, doors, and trees. Everything just blew up. I’ve never been to war, but if I had I’d have to say that, that was war.” Liaguno-Dorr is currently in litigation against her insurance
company, Lloyds of London, whose policy value with her was $1.2 million, but only offered her $9,657.14. “I can’t rebuild,” she said. “I can’t rebuild with that, so I had to hire a lawyer, so now it’s longer, more litigation it’s more
“Everything just blew up. I’ve never been to war but if I had I’d have to say that, that was war.” ANGELITA LIAGUNO-DORR Owner of Jakeabob’s Bay
money. Last year, for my insurances, I paid in the neighborhood of $44,000 to have coverage in the event that something happens and this is the event they don’t pay.” She said the insurance companies are not being held accountable and she plans on taking the issue to the president. “The local government can only do so much and then the state level can only do so much
but the one who can really push it is the president I think,” Liaguno-Dorr said. “I don’t know why this country is run the way that it is.” When she got her mor tgage on the restaurant, she said she was told that she had to have insurance. “So we have to pay our premiums, and I don’t understand why the insurance companies [don’t] do what they’re supposed to do,” she said. The lease on her temporary location ends in March and she is unsure if she will renew it for the next year. “I just want my business back,” she said. “I just want my spot back. I’m still paying for all these things on a property that doesn’t even exist, there’s no business.“ She said business in her current location could not even be compared to what she had by the bay. “We had enter tainment seven days a week, we were busy up there,” she said. “So many people walked away from their homes. … To be honest they want to sit on the water, they want that location.”
BY THE NUMBERS: HURRICANE SANDY 147 direct deaths. 650,000 homes destroyed. 8.5 million people left without power. Damage estimates: $65 billion Rutgers sheltered about 1,200 people. About 6,000 students from Cook/Douglass and College Avenue evacuated to Piscataway campuses. SOURCE: NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER, US DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE, NCDC, STEVEN KELEMAN / GRAPHIC BY ALEXA WYBRANIEC / DESIGN EDITOR
BY THE NUMBERS: UNION BEACH, NJ Estimated population of Union Beach in 2012: 6,211 Borough had more than 2,269 housing units in 2010. Median household income from 2007-2011: $65,654 1,780 permits issued so far. Total estimated cost of work done: $28,986,791 250 homes demolished. 100 homes to be demolished. 92 homes being raised. 88 new home construction. 54 visitors per day in October on average.
The sign above stood in place of Angelita Liaguno-Dorr’s destroyed restaurant on the bay of Union Beach. Liaguno-Dorr only received $9,657.14 from her insurance company to rebuild. JULIAN CHOKKATTU / NEWS EDITOR
SOURCE: US CENSUS BUREAU, BOROUGH OF UNION BEACH CONSTRUCTION MANAGERS / GRAPHIC BY ALEXA WYBRANIEC / DESIGN EDITOR
October 29, 2013
Remembering Sandy Page 7
Hurricane forces evacuation of more than 6,000 at Rutgers Hurricane Sandy forced the Rutgers-New Brunswick campus to shutdown for one week. More than 6,000 students had to be evacuated from Cook, Douglass and College Avenue campuses’ residential areas to Busch and Livingston campuses, as they could not use New Brunswick’s water. Steven Keleman, director of the Of fice of Emergency Management, said power went out in a majority of campuses and with losing the city’s water supply, and there was nothing they could do but learn from the situation. “What we did do is learn from how we handled the operation, moving the students
and improving communications,” he said. The lack of fuel and public transpor tation did not help as the University could not get faculty and staf f back to work once power was up and running. “We had to develop ways to carpool and pick them up. … That was an obstacle for us,” he said. Rutgers, along with the Red Cross, provided shelter to about 1,200 people in the aftermath of Sandy. About 900 were from Atlantic County and around 230 from Middlesex County’s surrounding shore communities. The Sonny Werblin Recreation Center on Busch campus and the Livingston Recreation
Center on Livingston campus acted as a shelter up until Thanksgiving, he said. Students living in New Brunswick who needed help were also placed into student centers and were provided food. Greg Trevor, senior director of University Media Relations, said Rutgers encourages students to sign up for the main University-wide social media distribution pages such as Facebook and Twitter before a major crisis occurs again. “That way people would get it immediately, rather than searching for it for other means,” he said. “It’s a simple example that could really make a dif ference.”
Hurricane Sandy forced the shutdown last year of the Rutgers-New Brunswick campus. THE DAILY TARGUM / NOVEMBER 2012
President Barack Obama visited Fort Dix in New Jersey in June 2013 to assess the damage with Gov. Chris Christie. ENRICO CABREDO / EDITOR-IN-CHIEF / JUNE 2013
Christie blames federal agencies for grant delays The aftermath of Hurricane Sandy boosted Gov. Chris Christie’s political career, as his approval rating hit 72 percent, according to a Quinnipiac Poll in the days following the storm. But as months went on, New Jersey residents began to wonder where the funding was to rebuild their homes. An ar ticle in The New York Times said some victims questioned why Christie did not follow New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s steps and write to the credit card and mor tgage companies asking them not to penalize people having trouble making payments due to the storm. But Christie blamed the slowness of federal agencies for delays in pushing grants out to residents af fected by the storm, the ar ticle read. Christie was also criticized for his “Stronger than the Storm” adver tisements. One adver tising firm did not propose using Christie’s family in the adver tisement, and the state chose to use another that was 40 percent more expensive, according to the Asbur y Park Press. In an Oct. 18 Rutgers-Eagleton Poll, among likely voters along the Jersey Shore, 74 percent are suppor ting Christie. An Oct. 28 Monmouth University poll found current and
former displaced residents tend to be more dissatisfied, 61 percent, than satisfied, 38 percent, with N.J.’s recover y effor ts so far. It is dif ficult to tell what Democratic gubernatorial candidate Barbara Buono would have done if she was in the governor’s chair when Sandy hit. Apar t from promising to get more funding to the residents, Buono, like Christie, has visited Sandy victims numerous times. According to The Associated Press, the issue with flood insurance is widespread. Many homeowners who were af fected by Sandy are receiving flood insurance checks nowhere near the amount they need to rebuild. “They say policyholders are being shor tchanged — sometimes by tens of thousands of dollars — because of adjusters’ inexperience and their over-reliance on computer programs, rather than construction know-how, to estimate rebuilding costs,” the ar ticle read. Christie told The Star-Ledger that he did not predict the devastation to be as bad as it was. “It just, to me, was so far worse than what I expected to see,” Christie said to The Star-Ledger.
SANDY’S PATH
Oct. 31: The storm dissipates over western Pennsylvania. Oct. 29: Sandy makes landfall near Atlantic City at 8 p.m. in N.J. The storm is considered as a post-tropical nor’easter. The full moon adds about a foot to the surge of the high tide. Oct. 28: Still a Category 1 hurricane, Sandy’s winds cover about 1,000 miles as it moves parallel to the coasts of Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina. Oct. 27: Sandy moves toward the northeast off the coast of Florida. The death toll in the Caribbean is estimated at 70 or more. The storm weakens but strengthens into a Category 1 hurricane again. Oct. 24: Turning into a Category 1 hurricane, Sandy moves across Jamaica with winds of 80 mph. More than 50 people die in Haiti. Oct. 22: A tropical depression forms in the southern Caribbean Sea. The depression strengthens, turning into Tropical Storm Sandy with wind speeds of about 40 mph.
SOURCE: NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC NEWS WATCH
GRAPHIC: ALEXA WYBRANIEC / DESIGN EDITOR
JULIAN CHOKKATTU / NEWS EDITOR