Meltdowns and Waves – Archive

Before you can say nuclear meltdown we were on our way to the Jersey Shore to study super storm Sandy (notice I didn’t just call it a hurricane). Our trip to New Jersey was broken down into two parts interviews and tours. We were able to interview 3 people, each who experienced the storm in a unique way. Then we were shown around the shore by a local geologist in the area who showed us various neighborhoods affected by the storm.
Our first interview was with an older gentleman whom lived in a retirement community during the storm. I was incredibly shocked to hear that he was barely affected by the storm and only the wind did minor damage to his property. I had incorrectly assumed Sandy wreaked havoc all across the shore even further inland. Another part of his story that really surprised me was the fact that he only last power in his community for about 30 hours. Some residence in the community relied on various electronics for their health, so restoring power fast was a major priority. It still amazes me he was able to get power back so early though.
The second person we interviewed was a local residence who lives right near the water on the barrier islands. During the storm the entire first floor of her house was flooded. What I found interesting about her story was just how eager she was to share it. Instead of the usual interview routine she ended up just telling us what happened to her during the storm. She left the island with her daughter, but her husband stayed behind. Interestingly enough, her house didn’t flood till around 1am and was not flooded from the beach. Instead water Before you can say nuclear meltdown we were on our way to the Jersey Shore to study super storm Sandy (notice I didn’t just call it a hurricane). Our trip to New Jersey was broken down into two parts interviews and tours. We were able to interview 3 people, each who experienced the storm in a unique way. Then we were shown around the shore by a local geologist in the area who showed us various neighborhoods affected by the storm.
The last person we interviewed was a local geologist. She stressed three major things in hurricane damage mitigation dunes, dunes and you guessed it, dunes. She described a constant struggle with the local government and community about building dunes and implementing other mitigation strategies. Many of the wealthier summer residence complain about dunes obstructing their view of the beach. I thought this was absolutely unacceptable because it traps the community in an endless cycle. Storms come and destroy their three story mansions, but they have enough money to just rebuild it again. This to me seems like a waste of resources and money. All these residence would have to do it agree to dunes being built and sacrifice their precious view of the beach.