I owned an oceanfront house in Beach Haven, NJ from 2000 to 2004–back in the good old days. We used to ride out the storms–hurricane, Nor’easters, sideways rain and sleet, snow, etc, and then wait for the following day offshore wind for the double overhead waves–tubes like you might see on the West Coast or Hawaii, but in 50-degree water.

LBI got hit very, very hard. Fortunately my neighbor evacuated. But the ocean surge at high tide and a full moon overwhelmed the dunes, and the ocean met the bay.  There’s been a ton of damage.

I got married at the 4th St Pavilion. I saw a picture of the Pearl St Pavilion; it’s totally demolished, so I imagine 4th street–just blocks away–suffered a similar fate.

But the damage to NYC and other areas is really hard to imagine. Salt water is so corrosive (tip: never by a car from someone living in a beach town); it’s likely a lot of the NYC lower Manhattan subway electrical system will have to be replaced at some point. The sooner the better.

I hope you made it through the storm safely. Lancaster held up pretty well–some flooding, some outages, but it seems we’re almost back to normal.