Sooo... We went to NJ last December. It was for a family gathering called Bir-ank-mas: Birthday/Thanksgiving/Christmas. We had a very enjoyable time and loved getting to see some of our family that we hadn't seen in a while.
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| Lydia trying to rest on the way up there. |
Our Grandma has a house on an island that got hit really bad by Hurricane Sandy. Her house did very well considering most of the houses on the island were not legal to live in, they were so damaged.We stayed in it two nights and got to tour the mangled island a little. As we drove in, the whole main road looked like this, with the insides of the stores and houses out on the curb.
Right past a favorite section of town, which was in horrible condition, we came upon a dumping place for all the trash. It is amazing how much debris there was!
The sand washed from one side of the island to the other, so they had to scrape the roads before doing anything else. There were many piles of sand like this.
Some of the roads where really bad and cracked up. Some were blocked off!
The picture below is the beach where we were staying. There used to be a board walk where the girls are standing. Now there is just a pile of sand.
The beach was so pretty that evening!
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| Very cold, also! |
We found out later that we weren't supposed to be on the beach because the sand was contaminated. Oh, well! We didn't get sick! ;)
The bay side was also very bad.
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| One of the houses they are fixing on the bay side. |
Elisabeth's silhouette.
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| In case you can't read this, is says, " Thank's Sandy". |
The next morning we were on the beach before the sun rose.
On our walk we got to see a lot more of the damage Sandy inflicted on the island.
The dunes got washed away and the sand came right into and under the houses.
The sun pops up!
It was such a beautiful morning!
As we left the island we went to the other side and saw things like this house that came off it's pilings and crashed into the house beside it.
More streets lined with trash.
I thought this picture was cute. Lydia had done Gabriel's hair.
Lydia and our cousin being goofy.
Me and my 105 year old Great-grandma
And more house pictures!
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| That's pretty scary! |
Some houses looked just fine!
This was my Aunt's store. It got at least 4 feet of water inside of it.
This house was really bad!
It was moved several feet from it it original place and filled with tree branched and debris.
I thought this frisbee, crushed in the dirt, may have been someone's favorite.
The island was a mess and so sad to see. There is a lot of work still to be done. I hope this motivates you to keep praying for those who lost so much from this natural disaster.
