Although the news cycle moved on awhile ago, the east coast’s recovery from Superstorm Sandy isn’t even close to the finish line. Case in point: the residents of Mantoloking, New Jersey, weren’t even allowed to go back home until today.
That’s four months after the storm hit New York and the Jersey Shore. Mantoloking residents are the last Jersey community to get the OK to go home, provided they still have one to go to. As the Associated Press notes, “it’s not a mad rush.”
According to CBS New York, every single one of the 521 homes in the barrier island community suffered at least some Sandy damage, 60 of which simply disappeared. “Hundreds” of the homes still standing are severely damaged and will need to be demolished.
Mantoloking is a wealthy community with only 100 or so year-round residents, but a larger summer population. During the storm, water from the ocean bisected the community and cut through to the bay, taking an as-yet unknown amount of homes, cars, and debris with it.
