Hurricane Sandy News

 

Forum: Hurricane Sandy

TOPIC: 

Sandy

Created on: 01/13/13 12:19 PM Views: 2379 Replies: 1
Sandy
Posted Sunday, January 13, 2013 12:19 PM

It's been awhile since the storm, however I do have some memories of it that I'll never forget.  The night of the storm we spent in our basement in Toms River, because it was about the best place to be.  Who would figure that the next 11 days we wouldn't have electric or heat.  After a day I went up to check on my mom in Springfield.  She had no heat or electric, and she is only 86!  After asking her twenty times to leave the house, she said " I'll be fine".  And that's the way she spent the next 9 days, with a cooler and candles and flashlights.  They don't make em like that anymore.

My wife and I decided to stay in our house, using the fireplace and going to bed early.  We would run down to south jersey every other day too my son's, who had heat and electric, and food.  During this whole period we would see the new's and look at each other wondering about our business and beach house.  This went on for two and a half weeks, until Toms River Township let us get on a bus and checkout our properties.  That was a long time waiting to findout what had happened.  When we saw the island for the first time it was really unbelievable.  Ortley Beach looked like it was put in a blender.  It wasn't a pritty site, to say the least.  We got to Ocean Beach and we're very happy to find that our store looked good from the outside.  When we got in side we foundout that we had about three inches of water.  Just enough to make us have to take the store apart and ripout the carpet. We also had to open up some of the walls so they could dryout.

Next was our Beach house up the street from the store.  Being the forth house off the ocean we were better protected then the ocean front houses.  We ended up having to ripout the carpet.  The big problem  we had was that the ocean brought sand that accumulated up to one and a half feet.  I spent the month of December removing sand off the property.  The amazing thing in Ocean Beach 3 was that the ocean front had 40 houses on it before the storm.  After the storm it look's like 34  will have to be knocked down or they are already down.

The most depressing thing about the whole storm was that because of the damage, people had to ripout the entire contents of their house and throw it out to the street.   This all stayed on the street's for about 6 weeks, it was really depressing.  At that time we started to think about closing the business.  It was really depressing.  The more you would hear about places like Mantaloking, who lost over 100 houses, out of 500, the more depressed you could get.

About this time I decieded that I didn't want to end my business on a bad note.  So............After twisting my wifes arm, we are going to try and open Z-Line up again on April 1st.  Our number one item this year is the Restore the Shore T-Shirts and Sweats.  Our son Scott is the one behind them.  His business name is Blue Wave Printing.   All the proceeds are donated to people on the Jersey Shore that need help after Sandy hit.  You can make a hugh difference when you buy one directly or on line.  Since the storm he has donated over $410,000.00  The funny thing is that I had to twist his arm because he didn't want to do it because he said "I can't make money from people that lost so much"  The story goes on, checkout his Facebook site which tells the whole story.

The other way to help is to come to the Jersey Shore and support local business  Hope you enjoy this short story.

Bruce Z

 
RE: Sandy
Posted Sunday, January 13, 2013 01:26 PM

Thank you so much for telling us your story, Bruce - you and your family have gone through so much toliterally dig out of the aftermath of Sandy.  I wish you much success with the reopening of your store, and hope that others join along to save the Jersey shore. 

I just checked for your son's website and want to make sure I found the right one since there are a few "Save the Shore" t-shirt sites.  I did find http://www.bluewaveshirts.com/ - I saw a picture of the two of you on Blue Wave's Facebook page, and I'd love to post a link so we can support his efforts to raise money for the rebuilding.

Again, thank you for the update and wishing you a lucky 2013!

Melissa