Interactive Map: Assessing Damage from Superstorm Sandy

The first town-by-town data about damage to homes and businesses from Superstorm Sandy show patterns of devastation that are not surprising but still staggering, according to a report in NJ Spotlight.

Communities in the coastal counties of Ocean and Monmouth were hardest hit, but inland residents of Little Ferry and Moonachie in Bergen County suffered losses that were nearly as large.

By far, the largest number of housing units damaged was in sprawling Toms River, which includes Ortley Beach – an area so hard-hit that residents were not allowed back home for more than three months after the late October storm. More than 8,800 residences, nearly 90 percent of those individual houses, were damaged, 1,000 severely, according to data provided by the state Department of Community Affairs.

Nearly 5,100 businesses were affected, as well. In adjacent Seaside Heights, whose roller coaster was washed into the ocean and became an iconic image of the storm, almost 60 percent of residences – 1,929 – were damaged, as were more than 200 businesses, many of them along the borough’s famous boardwalk.

But, proportionally, two Monmouth County communities took the biggest hits. In Sea Bright, where sand piles lining the main streets resembled tan snow drifts after cleanup trucks cleared the way after the storm, 1,028 residences were damaged, which represents more than 9 of every 10 dwelling units. More than 100 businesses on the narrow barrier island were impacted, too. Up Route 36, some 1,700 residences – 80 percent of all dwellings – and 142 businesses were damaged in two-square mile Union Beach.

Up in Bergen County, at the confluence of the Hackensack River and Overpeck Creek, the water that inundated Little Ferry and Moonachie brought significant damage. Almost 6 in 10 dwellings – 378 – and 378 businesses in Moonachie were affected, as were 1,525 residences and 488 businesses in Little Ferry.

Statewide, nearly 87,000 housing units were damaged, about 12,500 of those either sustaining major damage or being destroyed. At least 1,000 residences were damaged in 24 municipalities in seven counties. Nearly 400,000 businesses were impacted, as well.

In Lawrence Township, 11 homes were damaged - two had damage up to $8,000 and the remaining nine sustained damage totaling between $8,000 and $28,800. A total of 1,698 businesses in Lawrence Township were also impacted by the storm.

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