Up and down New Jersey's storied shore, the scene of summer fun for generations of Easterners is now a tangle of wet, splintered wood, seawater, sand and debris. It's a region that claims rocker Bruce Springsteen as a native son — and of more recent fame, Snooki and the cast of MTV's Jersey Shore.
New Jersey's blunt-speaking Republican Gov. Chris Christie says as much as he loves it, the iconic Jersey Shore of his own childhood may be a thing of the past. Christie looked over the damage with President Obama on Wednesday, a day after he had looked without success for a Seaside Heights sandwich and lemonade stand he has known for decades. "Gone," he concluded, noting his own disappointment will be widely shared by residents and regulars.
"There's a certain pride the citizens here have about not only each other, but about these places in our state," Christie said. "They love the idea of walking on the boardwalk in Wild wood or Ocean City or Seaside Heights or Point Pleasant with their children, the way their parents walked with them." Although Christie and many other New Jersey veterans spoke of rebuilding, the decision will not be a simple one for many people who have seen their nest eggs or livelihoods swept away. Some said they will be back; others weren't sure.
Farther north of Atlantic City at Seaside Heights, where recovery workers in rubber boots checked storm-battered houses for residents, bodies and structural damage, those calculations were being made, building by building.
Billy Major, who owns and built the Fun Town Pier, an amusement park at the water's edge that is now in ruins, was wrestling with whether to try to restore his investment.
Major's eyes were red Wednesday, 10 minutes after he arrived for his first look at damage to the 40 rides he built since buying the property in 1980. The Ferris wheel is still standing, but on sand instead of concrete pilings. Other rides lay in a crumpled wreck, partially covered by waves.
Seaside Heights Police Chief Tom Boyd pointed at the foundation of a house that had been partially washed away. The house appeared intact and straight, but the masonry foundation tilted into the void. At least 10 other homes have been similarly damaged, he said as he drove through streets that were nearly consumed by new dunes. Undulating sand rose 3 or 4 feet high in some roadways and were overtopped with homes that had been ripped from their foundations. One house on the main drag was toppled on its side and broken in two.
Once the power comes back on, he said, health and building inspectors will give it a once-over. He's not sure it'd pass. "All the electrical work runs under the building," he said. "The day the power comes back on — who knows?"
