After the Storm

I drove down to the Shore yesterday. It was an odd-number day so I could fill up my tank. I had to go to my beach. I had to see it. As horrible as it was, I am glad I saw the destruction (which is almost total) with my own eyes. This is one of my favorite places on the planet. I needed to see it, be there with it. If you have seen all of my beach pictures, you will recognize this. I made a point of driving down there the day before the storm. Although I was prepared intellectually, it still was totally horrifying to see it in person. The boardwalk sheared away, sand piled up across the street and down the block, covering the grass – basically the entire beach had moved, pushed through the boardwalk, barreled across the street, and continued to rush down into the neighborhood. The boardwalk is in ruins. The giant sea wall on the road-side, behind the boardwalk, is gone. Houses have disappeared. There are empty lots now. The jetty survived and people were out there fishing, which did my heart good. Lampposts tilt drunkenly on sheared-off pieces of boardwalk. The beautiful benches, each with a donated name plaque on the back, were broken, piled up on mountains of sand, or sitting randomly facing any which direction on the broken pieces of boardwalk. The public restroom, which sat on the boardwalk, where I would change into my bathing suit if I hadn’t already, was completely lifted off the boardwalk and flown backwards into the street. The roof was ripped off. Unbelievably, the pier stretching out into the ocean survived. Nothing else did.

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4 Responses to After the Storm

  1. Dan Leo says:

    Sorry about your shore town, Sheila. I grew up going to Cape May in the summers, where my grandmother lived, and where lots of my family have lived over the years. I hardly ever visit there anymore, but I still have a great affection for the town (as well as an uncle and his family living there, a sister who works there but lives up the road, lots of other relations in the area). Somehow I was sure Cape May would get slammed, as it usually does, but the town lucked out this time. Just a roundabout way of saying I sympathize…

  2. sheila says:

    Dan – yes, amazing about Cape May and I am so happy to hear it!! Weirdly – I order regularly from a company based out of Cape May (a candle/oil company). I had put in an order the week before the hurricane. I actually have not been receiving regular mail since the hurricane hit – so yesterday I decided to check in on my order. But I hesitated – I wasn’t sure if Cape May was destroyed, if the company had been wiped out – I didn’t want to be that entitled customer: “Sorry you lost your entire ROOF – but where are my essential oils???” I emailed customer service and expressed the hope they were okay. Wondered about the status of my order. Got a lovely email back from a person who said they were fine, Cape May was fine, and they would send my order out Tuesday. It was a nice human interaction with a customer service rep – and how often does that happen??

    Thanks for your comment. It’s really unbelievably bad down on the Shore. I knew it – but I had to see it for myself. So sad.

  3. kevin says:

    No one knows what causes angry rain

    after the flood – glad you and your cat are a ok

  4. Brendan says:

    Wow. These are incredible photos. I’ve never seen anything like it! Speechless.

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