Residents in Ocean City New Jersey feel lucky to have made it through Sandy

The combination of water and sand from Hurricane Sandy just overpowered towns up and down the South Jersey coast.  Connie Pappas rode out the storm at her home in Margate.  She says there were some tense moments.

“It got really quiet last night during what we thought was the eye of the storm,” said Pappas. “The wind wasn’t nearly what we expected But the water was ferocious, it was scary.”

Pappas says because she lost power in the afternoon it made the storm feel worse.

“We were in a brand new house that was 12 feet up from sea level, and we could see it racing by just a couple of feet below us at its peak,” said Pappas.  “It was in the dark so it was kind of hard to know what was going on.”

Ocean City resident Joanne Singer says she decided to leave a shelter because condititons were better at her home than the shelter.

“We got out of the shelter about 10 o’clock,” said Singer. “We went back because they lost power, we never lost power.  I’m at the highest point in Ocean City, we didn’t get flooded, The whole island’s underwater mine’s not.”

Jen Pfander of Ocean City also rode out the storm saying it was a frightening experience when the flooding started, since it was bigger than some of the most famous storms to hit the area.

“The water has never come up to our house before.  In ’44 and ’62, the water was on our grass,” said Pfander.  “It did not get to our front door, we were very lucky.”

Now it’s time for cleanup, which isn’t going to be a quick job.  There are wires down all over the island, some places where there were streets have a foot or more of sand covering them, and there needs to be the restoration of power to many of the homes along the Jersey Shore.