JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
nearly doubling over the past 40
years. More than 60 percent of
the state’s population now resides
in coastal counties, and the state
ranks fourth in the nation for the
number of residential properties
at risk from storm surge damage,
behind only the Gulf coast states
of Florida, Louisiana and Texas.
Ocean County is home to Long
Beach Island, less than a third of
a mile wide yet packed end to end
with homes, restaurants and boat
docks. The county has consistently
been the fastest growing in the state
since the 1950s, according to the
U.S. Census Bureau, increasing tenfold from around 50,000 in 1950
to more than 576,000 in 2010.
President
Obama
comforts
Dana
Vanzant,
a victim of
Hurricane
Sandy, in
Brigantine,
N.J.