AP PHOTO/STAR-LEDGER, DAVID GARD/POOL
With historic ferocity, Sandy
pounded the shorelines where
people like Baccale lived, leaving a
trail of destruction without parallel
in New York and New Jersey, two
states that bore the brunt of the
impact. The storm’s most destructive feature was a wind-driven wall
of water that swept in at high tide
and engulfed low-lying coastal areas with an unrelenting fury.
The surge flattened whole communities on New Jersey’s barrier
islands, causing untold billions
in damage, and topped seawalls
in lower Manhattan and throughout the metropolitan area, plunging millions into darkness. It also
claimed lives, especially on Staten
Island, where 21 people drowned
during the storm.
Given the size and power of the
storm, much of the damage from
the surge was inevitable. But perhaps not all. Some of the damage along low-lying coastal areas
was the result of years of poor
land-use decisions and the more
immediate neglect of emergency
preparations as Sandy gathered
force, according to experts and a
Billy Major,
owner of
the Fun
Town Pier
in Seaside
Heights,
N.J., surveys
damage
caused by the
superstorm.