As a beach baby from way back, the Jersey Shore has been a favorite setting of mine whether it is the lovely landscape of Spring Lake or the historic Victorian Cape May, so it has been really heartbreaking to see the damage Hurricane Sandy inflicted on New Jersey's treasure shoreline.
The entire hurricane experience has been surreal. While writing news post for http://www.rantpolitical.com, fear started to set in. Adding more fuel to the anxiety was the police cars driving around town alerting residents to the possibility of an evacuation due to the approaching storm surge.
In the end, my town would be spared the devastation incurred from the storms waves unlike last year's Hurricane Irene which caused a lot of damage from flooding waters. We, like most of the Garden State, would be thrust into darkness. Gas and milk suddenly became luxuries that were difficult to obtain. Routes which once were common place were now impassable.
It would be days in a cold house minus electricity and hot water, but we were the lucky ones. Just two towns over people were homeless. Their houses rendered uninhabitable by the waters which rushed through taking everything they owned with them.
Keansburg, a Bayshore town where I taught for years, would be brought to its knees along with many of its neighbors. All towns that hold memories. People left with nothing but the clothing on their backs. Many of whom had little to begin with.
When the first copy of a newspaper finally made its way to our doorstep three days after the infamous storm passed, I was shocked. Shocked to see the photographs of a once beautiful landscape looking like a bomb had been detonated on its shores.
The ocean's power had left its mark. A painful reminder that the ocean with all of its beauty will never be tamed.
Yet, we will rebuild. We are New Jersey. We are strong. The shore will be back. Perhaps not in its previous form, but it will be back and the memories of what it once was will always remain in my heart and in the pages of my stories.
