The Jersey Shore - Seaside Heights after Sandy

We were finally able to go down to the Jersey Shore, our first time since Hurricane Sandy.
For quite some time the bridge was closed for visitors. My husband's family have a shore house a few minutes north of the famous Seaside Heights. Of course, as everyone knows the whole area had been evacuated. Two months after the hurricane, they were finally allowed to go to their house to assess the damages, but they had to drive down to a certain area and then take transportation made available for all inhabitants of the island. Now, the island is re-opened to everyone, but there is still a curfew and police officers are very strict on what visitors can or cannot do.

Last time I was there was July 28th 2012 when my brother came to visit us from France. This is a restaurant called The Dock where we had breakfast that morning. After we ate, we took a walk all the way to the end of the dock, it was beautiful (I'll have to steal  my Mother-In-Laws's pics of that day!). There were fishermen, families going on their little boats, children running around. I can just remember the joyful happy feeling floating in the air.
When we were there 3 days ago, it was a completely different scenery...

Here is a little Before/After picture of the beach by my In-Laws summer home. Huge sand dunes formed in front of all the houses along this beach. It doesn't seem that bad on picture, but in reality it's pretty impressive! Especially when you're on top of them, and it used to be as flat as a crepe! (sorry, that's probably a very French analogy...)

Before ~ July 28, 2012

After ~ February 10, 2013

Here is another one... Let's see if you can tell the difference!!

Before ~ October 28th, 2012 ~ My crazy Hubby was the last person on the beach that day, while it was being evacuated!

After ~ February 10, 2013 

Yes, the sky is blue on the After picture! But no, that's not the only difference, nor is the snow!

Yes, the little house is GONE... :( It used to be the guard house...

And now for Seaside Heights:

Of course, it's been months now since the hurricane. A lot of work has been done already. And with the snow, it almost kinda somewhat looks... ok... I'm just saying that these are not right-after-the-storm pictures but, for us, it was still a big shocker...

Although we weren't really allowed to and cops were constantly yelling at us to get off, we were finally able to walk on the "Board Walk" or whatever is left of it and see more of the disaster caused by the hurricane.

Left over of Funtown Pier... 

I passed it so many times, wanted to go in it so many times, never went in and always said, "oh it's alright, we'll go next time". 

Not anymore I guess..

. 

This is where the Board Walk ends...

Casino Pier:

 I really wanted to go on the sky lift/sky ride... I've gone on so many in sky resorts with snow under my feet in a very cold air and being bundled in layers of warmth. I wanted to see so bad how it felt to be on top sand, on a nice summer day, wearing not much more than a bathing suit...
Not sure when that will be possible...

Still so much clean up to do...

There were mounts of garbage everywhere we looked (furniture, documents, machines, appliances...).

It just gave us a really weird feeling being there... Sad feeling I guess... "Down the shore" will never be the same anymore...

So... It just made me realize...
We never know what will happen tomorrow, so why always wait or push things back for the next day or even later on ???

Seize The Day For  A

Life in Positudiness!

~Sandie