Hurricane Sandy

New Jersey, along with 23 other states, experienced a monster storm named Sandy.  Originally this storm was forcasted to move along the east coast and go out to sea.  However, she had other plans.  Not only did this category one hurricane hit the east coast, but it merged with a nor'easter which wreaked havoc on the coastal locations of the east coast.  While this storm was creating problems for the north east, the outer bands of the storm were still down in the Carolina's!  Due to the size of the storm it earned nicknames like 'Frankenstorm' and 'Superstorm Sandy.'  For those of us along the coast of New Jersey and New York, we were pounded as we took a direct hit from the storm.  At our house we experienced 80 mph winds, flooding, and snapped branches from trees.  Let's not forget that we were in a full moon, high tide, and the storm produced an 8 foot water surge.  This storm was very different from Irene, but then they are never the same as the storm before.  Many people didn't evacuate from the barrier islands, which cost lives.  The damage is unreal.  As I am typing this, it has been a week and two days since the storm and yet as of yesterday 900,000 people are still without power.  To make this whole situation worse, as I am typing this a nor'easter is hitting us again.  We are having rain and snow right now with barely any wind, but the wind is going to pick up to about 50 mph later this afternoon. 

Please keep in mind that the picture's I am posting were taken the morning after the storm.  The water levels are still high, but the night before they were so much higher.  We survived the storm and have lived to tell about it.  It was brutal, but even in storm's God is faithful to us.  He provided protection and we are thankful.

This photo was taken the morning after the storm.  The water was much higher than this the night before. 

Our firewood tarp was unzipped by the wind!  Even the knots that I made to tie it down came out.

This was taken after Tom and I cleaned up all the debris from the front.  The girl's didn't get to trick or treat but we did paint and carve our pumpkins. 

The front debris included items that didn't belong to us.  After we took these pictures, high tide came in again so we had to leave for a few hours.  When we came back, these items were gone.  I guess washed away to another home.

The car did have water rise up on it but not enough to go into the car.  We filed a claim just to be on the safe side, and the adjuster did a thorough investigation and all is well.  We did have to run it through the car wash to get the salt water off .

The water came over the bulkhead, which has never happened during any storm at this house.  I guess there is a first time for everything!  I'm very surprised the duck is still there on the step because water covered those steps as well.

This piling was completely covered the night before.  This was what I used for a marker to see how high the water was rising.

Our neighbor's boat cover ripped from the wind, and their house also flooded.  The have to replace all the carpet on the first floor of their house.  I believe they are going to use tile instead.

Our cousin, Brady, surveying the aftermath with us.

Our street, Albatross Point, was completely flooded and much, much worse the night before.  The water was up to my thighs when I reached the end of the driveway.  This street has never flooded in any storm.  But the Ocean met the bay during this storm.

Thank goodness for the crawl space!!!!  Were it not for this, our house would have had at least 2 feet of standing water.  This is the entrance from the side of the house.  We pump the water into the lagoon, which took about 2 hours. 

Tom pumping out the remainder of the water from the crawl space.  This opening is from inside the house.  We had to use a shop vac to suck up the water, then we poured it into a bucket and used a pool pump to pump the water through a hose to the street.  It took two days to do that.  A very long process.  End result....new heating duct is being installed tonight...insulation has to be replaced as well.

This was the lagoon the night before.  As you can see the water level is very high and at this point, there hadn't been a storm surge.  So it's easy to see how easily the water rose.