At the Jersey Shore, The Cleanup is On

by KYW's Ian Bush

The storm is over, but the cleanup has only just begun after a nor'easter socked the Jersey shore over the past few days.

Just a block from the beach in Sea Isle City, Landis Avenue looks like one big garage sale.

But Jerry, who's checking out his rental property, won't be making any money today:

"Taking everything out, getting the salt water off everything, getting my fishing equipment cleaned up, and taking all the carpet up and throwing it all away."

(Ian:) I see a bunch of your neighbors up and down the street...

(Jerry:) "We're all doing the same thing -- everybody."

As folks tally up the property damage, officials will be checking to see just how much of the beaches are left:

(Man:) "Atrocious -- very. Up by Strathmere, just up above the condos here, they better put sand back, or we aren't going to make it through the next one."

The waves that pummeled the shoreline took with them a lot of sand.  It'll likely cost millions to rebuild.

The rough seas were dangerous for surfers, but on Sunday, it was hang-ten heaven:

"It's gonna drop off soon -- because the storm's moving away."

Barry came from West Chester to see how the summer home fared:

"No flooding.  Some of the lower-lying places got flooded.  Basements, garages.  But we're fortunate -- our house is up on a concrete block foundation."

Louise Dalrymple works in her son's corner store.  It's been a while since she's seen flooding like the last few days -- which is not just bad for business:

"There was no business.  I usually work every day, and they called me on Thursday, and they said 'don't try to come in.' So I didn't come in Thursday, Friday, and Saturday."

The phone's ringing again at the store -- a good thing, since Louise wasn't able to make it to work for days because of the flooding:

"On my street, I'd never seen it as high as it was this time."

(Ian:) A lot of debris around?

(Louise:) "They're building condos across the street from me, and I will have handfuls of lumber to take back to their lot.  It looks like it all washed off into my back yard."

While some property owners will have to spend money to fix things up, Fred's trying to make some cash.  Armed with a metal detector, he's seeing what treasures have washed ashore:

"A silver ring."

(Ian:) You think that's a real diamond?

(Fred:) "Nah."

He says he is waiting to hear from Sotheby's to see if he really has an 18th Century Portuguese coin on his hands -- or if it's just another piece of storm junk.