I live just a few miles from Asbury Park, N.J., a seaside community once famed as a top spot of the Jersey Shore. After WWII the city fell on hard times and stayed there, and it only became a nice place to visit again thanks to a large urban renewal project that has been under way for the last few years to bulldoze derelict buildings, refurbish historic landmarks and encourage new businesses to set up shop.
Then Superstorm Sandy came along, and many of us who live "down the shore" were deeply concerned about Asbury Park. The city had just gotten back on its feet; what would happen if it was all washed away? Thankfully, the damage to Asbury Park was minimal, especially when compared to places like Long Branch, Asbury's neighbor to the north, where the storm surge hit the shoreline like a sledgehammer. The ocean took back whatever it wanted, leaving behind only shattered buildings, twisted wreckage and a monumental cleanup job that even now has barely just begun.
The thing is, Long Branch's damage pales before that of, say, Staten Island, where the devastation was total in some neighborhoods, and where substantial cleanup has already taken place. Meanwhile, the shoreline of Long Branch looks much the same as it did the day after Sandy blew into town. There has never been a full explanation for this. One might be tempted to think that Long Branch is doing the smart thing; after all, another storm will hit the shore. And the next time, it might be a bona fide hurricane. Maybe even a Cat 2 or Cat 3, which would inflict an order of magnitude more damage than Sandy did.
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