We're getting a little tired of Hurricanes.
Hurricane Sandy hit Long Beach Island at 8PM Monday October 29th.
The Army Corp of Engineers had a beach/dune replenishment project completed for Harvey Cedars 3 years ago which initially gave us about 100 yards of sand between the oceanfront houses and the ocean. Some of that had washed away over the past 2 years but without that sand, most of the north end of LBI would be doing demolition/reconstruction instead of just cleanup and landscaping mode.
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| Our house on the left |
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| Our Front Yard |
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Sandy hit during a full moon and had 2 high tides to remove the entire beach and dune. Waves were breaking over the dune, running down the street and in to the bay which was already at record flood tide levels.
So far, nobody is allowed back on the island but from initial photos, our house ended up with alot of sand everywhere and probably some water under the doors but it could have been much worse. We are still in the boatyard and will go home earlier at Christmas to work on the damage stuff instead of cutting time out now.
Hurricane Sandy seems to have been appropriately named.
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| East side of my Mom's house |
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| The main road of the island |
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Here's a video taken just before the final high tide. The waves are coming over the dune and down the street. It's a little dark because it was taken with a phone
Photos Courtesy of Terry Deakyne
These are not pictures of our house but are from houses in the area which show the damage that we potentially could have had:
Photos courtesy of Paul Rice
In the cockpit, originally, there was an 8kw diesel generator. We used it once in 3 years since we left NJ. We have enough charging capability from the solar panels, wind generator, and engine alternators, that we just haven't used it. So instead of hauling 500 pounds of steel around, we pulled it out last May.
Ever since we bought the boat we have had a refrigerator that has worked flawlessly. It was installed by the previous owner to replace an engine driven cold plate. The other hull has a large top loading engine driven cold plate box that has never worked and has forever been on the project list. This box was not insulated very well and there was no way to have it be an efficient freezer. The plan for this thing had changed multiple times over the years. Initially I was going to put in a new compressor and insulate it with vacuum panels but they are not being made anymore and would cost about $5000 for everything.
We've had a little 12/110 volt electric cooler that has been used to cool beer at the shore since you can crank it down real cold. It has also worked flawlessly. The same company makes a drop in version of this electric cooler. So, for the past week I have been preparing, insulating, and installing this thing. I added alot of blue foam insulation around it to increase the efficiency. 2 days ago we fired it up, it took 30 minutes to go from 80 degrees to freezing. We put the ice trays in and voilà, we have ice. Had an ice cube inauguration party last night over at our neighbors, Patrick and Kirsti. Rum and Cokes with our own ice cubes.
Laced the trampolines back on and equalized the batteries after 5 months of non-use.
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It's back to work today though. Cheers.
