Toms River, NJ
I made it safe and sound to Toms River, New Jersey, although
the tolls nearly killed me! I probably
paid over $45 from DC to NJ. I actually
had to pull into a rest area to find an ATM machine for more cash. I loved the campground and especially my oversized
site. I actually had a back yard
complete with a fire pit. Most of the
people seem to reside here full time.
They have really fixed up their sites with gardens, rock ponds, decks
and screened porches added to their RV’s.
My neighbor told me that many, like him, live elsewhere but use this as
a weekend getaway. The park is also
filled with construction workers judging by the number of trucks with
construction/repair logos. http://www.surfnstream.com.
My team came over for a get to know you BBQ and I could tell
right away this was going to be a great group to work with. Mike Kennedy came from Minnesota, Lee Blayden
from near Pittsburg and Bill and Barbara Epting drove an entire hour from Bucks
county Pennsylvania. Coincidently the
same town where my new neighbor lives.
We had a nice time getting to know each other.
On Monday we went to the North Ocean Habitat for Humanity
office (http://www.nohfh.com) where we met a
fantastic staff. Suzan the Executive
Director, Diana the construction Program Director and Alyssa the PR person were
just a few of the people waiting to greet us.
We also met Darryl, a disaster corp volunteer, deployed from the DC area
to assist with volunteer coordinating.
We heard about their current projects which include about 8 Sandy repair
homes and one new home for a family of 10.
Yes that’s two parents and 8 kids!
It is so obvious that everyone here is not only very committed to their
mission, but also very enthusiastic about having the Care-A-Vanners join
them. I sure hope we can live up to
their expectations.
After spending the morning getting to know everyone, Darryl
took us on a tour of the Sandy damaged area.
We went to Seaside Heights and Ortley Beach. There were no words to
describe what we were seeing, even 7 months later. WOW and unbelievable were repeated over and
over, but still didn’t convey what we were seeing. The tornado areas I spent the last 3 months
in were very different in the homes had been obliterated and the debris had
been cleared away. We had a clean slate
to work with. Here, you could still see
all the destruction. Homes that had been
ripped from their foundation and smashed into neighboring homes. Homes that had
been turned into a pile of rubble. We
just walked around in amazement. There
were a variety of reasons everything hadn’t been cleared away; waiting on the
insurance, people had no insurance and just walked away, waiting for FEMA, and
who would pay for the removal were the most common.
In Seaside Heights we saw the board walk and roller coaster
that was swept into the surf. Much of
the area was blocked off and we couldn’t get access. We spotted a news crew out of Philadelphia so
I asked if we could follow them onto the closed part of the boardwalk, but they
couldn’t get access either. They were
doing a story on the Sandy recovery and we tried to get them to do a story on
us. We thought a bunch of out of town
volunteers coming to help rebuild would be of interest to them, but they
apparently didn’t. As we walked farther
down the boardwalk we came across another news crew, this one from
Univision. We asked if we could follow
them behind the blocked off area, but they also couldn’t get past the
barriers. We just wanted to see the
roller coaster up close. When we told
them who we were, they were very interested in interviewing us. We made sure they got a good shot of our
local affiliate jackets. Unfortunately
it’s a cable station in Spanish, so we don’t know if we made the news or
not. We did finally get a look at the
roller coaster, but not up close.
The next day we all met Dick, a volunteer site supervisor,
at a house that had been damaged by Sandy.
The homeowners were living in a FEMA trailer while the repairs were
underway. It was a beautiful house on
the water. The destruction must have
been extensive, most of the house had been gutted and rebuilt. There was a lot left to be done though -
painting, hanging doors, crown molding and kitchen cabinets. Bill, Mike, Lee and Barbara stayed there
while I went to a farm house a few blocks away to work with another site
supervisor, Leif. The original portion
of this old farmhouse was built in 1860.
They have since built onto it and it’s a beautiful old house set at the
end of the block on a huge lot. This
area was evacuated just before Sandy hit.
The wife left but the husband stayed behind. He went outside to check the generator and
was hit by a storm surge. He was carried
quite some distance away but luck was with him.
He was swept into a fallen tree where he was able to hold on until his
eventual rescue. The renovations were
almost complete, all that was left was some tile work by the front door. At the end of the day, we were treated to
coffee and cookies, such a treat.
The next day Lee and I went to work on a 2 story house. Initially Habitat was just supposed to
replace some windows. When they pulled
the last one out, they discovered the entire wall had rotted and was
structurally unsound. Back to square
one, they had to rebuild the outside wall of a bump out kitchen. Lee worked on the inside while I worked out
side with the site supervisor Luc. These
homeowners provided lunch for us, always a nice touch.
On Thursday Lee and I went back to our house while the rest
of the crew continued working on the 1st house. Friday the CAV’s were joined by 3 college
students from Leigh University. Barbara
and I took them to a 4th house for some major yard work while the
rest of the crew continued with the 1st house. This house belonged to a widow with health
problems and a special needs child. She
had an adult son who worked with us all day.
He was at a culinary school during Sandy and had recently
graduated. He dropped out of school at
age 16 and got into a jobs program 2 years later. He got his GED, drivers license and finished
culinary school in record time. No other
student had ever finished the program as fast.
We helped him plant a garden along with some flowers once we took back
the yard from the weeds.
On Saturday everyone went to a 5th house. This one is a new build for a family of 10. It’s a two story house and we were doing siding. It required us to be up on scaffolding. The only issue I had was how wobbly it was. And how hard it was to go up and down! We had to step on a pump jack to pump the platform up. It took 3 of us and we had to all be in synch, which was a lot harder than we thought. Once up there, we finished our work, now we were faced with getting down. We had to kick the break and crank a hand roller to get down. Again, we had to be in synch or someone’s break got locked. You had to use brute force to unlock it, at which point there was a huge jolt. Pretty scary at first, just really annoying once we got going and stopping and going and stopping. We did this for 2 days. I was happy to see the affiliate had not skimped on safety, this scaffolding had the required netting and everything. The homeowner joined us when he was not working at one of is 3 jobs. Such family dedication was nice to see.
Sunday we had the day off and everyone headed out to explore
the area while I stayed home and caught up on some much needed chores. On Monday the rest of the crew decided to
continue working on the 1st house while I headed back to DC. It seems there’s a problem with my recent
dental work. I was having a lot of pain
when chewing and the tooth was really
sensitive to hot and cold. My biggest
fear was a root canal, but I was braced for it.
I arrived at Dr. Moffitt’s office bright and early. After an x-ray, he found a piece of cement,
used to attach the crown, was imbedded between the 2 teeth. He couldn’t tell if that was causing the
problem but his attempts to remove it sent me through the roof. He couldn’t get to it without numbing the
tooth since the nerve was so agitated.
And he couldn’t numb it before the Endodontic had a chance to evaluate
it. So off I went to the specialist for
a 2nd opinion. Once there, he
tortured me for a bit before proclaiming the nerve was doing its job. In my opinion it was working over time! He said there was a 50/50 chance the cement
was the cause of the pain and sensitivity.
He recommended going back to Dr. Moffitt and having the cement removed
and waiting to see if the pain went away.
So, off I went to get numbed up again.
Once the piece was removed, a 2nd x-ray showed no further
foreign bodies and I was on my way back to NJ to wait and see.
Tuesday and Wednesday we continued working on the 1st
house and on the new build. On Thursday
we all went to work on our 6th and final house. Ron was the site supervisor here, he’s the
newest construction guy to be hired with Sandy funds. This one belonged to a very nice single lady, with 2 grown kids. She lived a few blocks from the beach and
said when she returned after the storm, her yard was full of beach sand. She had done volunteer work in the past,
assisting senior citizens with their taxes.
It’s always good to give back to someone who also volunteers their
time. We were finishing up the last room
to be repaired and there was painting to do.
I began the day by spilling a bucket of paint on the floor. Lucky for me the can was almost empty and the
plywood floor was to be carpeted later.
Next, I tipped over a full glass of my precious Diet Mt. Dew. To add insult to injury, I broke the glass
too. The day was made better when the homeowner
said she was going to paint the bathroom purple. No wonder I liked her so much, she has great
taste!
On Friday Barbara, Ron, Diana and I decided to visit the
Today show. They were filming in Seaside
Heights and we thought it was a great way to get a plug in for Habitat. The focus of the show was the opening of the
Jersey Shore after Sandy. We took a huge
Habitat Banner and were able to place ourselves right in front of where the
hosts were sitting. It turned out great,
we were able to get on TV while Gov Christie was speaking. The Governor came over to us several times,
he signed our banner, shook our hands and even took a picture with us. We also got Matt, Al, Natalie, Snookie from
Jersey Shore, Giada De Laurentis, Willy Geist and others to sign our
banner. It was a really fun time and we
enjoyed meeting the people around us in the crowd.
After the Today Show, we went back to work and finished up painting
on the house. We got out early and
headed back home. We went by some other
damaged areas, this even worse then we saw on our first day. There is still so much to do here, I signed
up for the July build as did the Eptings.
My overall impression was that this was the most engaged and
enthusiastic affiliate I have ever worked with.
I was in constant contact with the Executive Director even before we
arrived. On our first day, we met most, if
not all of the office staff. Alyssa the
PR person came out to the build site almost every day, taking pictures and
talking to all the volunteers. Each of the site supervisors were a joy to
work with, they had the required experience of course, but they were patient with
all the volunteers and most of all, each of them was fun to work with. Diana
the construction program director was also in constant contact with me,
including me on many of the day to day business emails. Darryl, like us, was an out of towner who
came to help. He visited us regularly as
well, most of the time baring gifts of food, which we all love of course. On our last night, the affiliate invited us
to a pizza dinner just before their board meeting, so we got to meet some board
members as well, many of whom we had previously been introduced too. Each of the homeowners we met were so appreciative of our help. Normally, on a new build we get to meet and
work with the home owners, but this was different somehow. It’s one thing to be building a new house,
even after you lost everything in the tornado.
In this case, the homeowners
seemed more touched by the amount of assistance they received from the various volunteer
groups.
The homeowners in the farmhouse for example had a remembrance book. She said busses would just pull up in her
neighborhood and total strangers would spill out and help however they could. She had pictures of the various groups and
the progress of her home being restored.
Maybe that’s the difference; in the tornados, the home is new and the
homeowners don’t feel the same attachment to the specific house. Here, they can see what they once had, being
restored to the same home that they know and love. I was invited back to most of the homes when I
return in July, they look forward to showing off their completed homes and I look
forward to seeing them again.
After 3 months, I’m taking a break from working every day.
I’m headed to various parts of New York for the next month and am looking
forward to getting back to hiking. First stop New York City.
Pictures from Toms River, Today show, Sandy destruction:
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