Hurricane Sandy

A Summer After Sandy

In the wake of Hurricane Sandy’s unimaginable devastation along the Jersey coast, Jersey Shore teenagers will face an endemic question this summer: Where will they work?

Little Silver lies in Monmouth County New Jersey, just a few short minutes inland from the aesthetic Jersey beaches, and a place where roughly six thousand people call their home. But like many Jersey Shore towns, “home” is not restricted within each town’s respective borders. Home encompasses the surrounding towns, the entire strip of vibrant beaches and beach clubs, the restaurants, the hot dog stands, the ice cream shops and the many recreation options and boardwalk amusements so unique to this very special piece of Oceanside geography.  This is the place that attracts tens of thousands of visitors each summer to the benefit of most and somewhat bothersome to others.  For Little Silver residents, it’s all home.

Historically, the town’s teenagers and college students have found employment along the lucrative and vibrant Jersey Shore. Beach clubs need beach boys, lifeguards, and snack stand workers. Restaurants need busboys, waiters, waitresses, and bar-backs. Shops need cashiers and stockers. Most Little Silver kids can claim one of these titles as their job; for some, a job that they have held since they were 14 years old. For others, it’s a job that they keep much longer and in some ways shapes and influences the way the progress through their adult lives.

For many, these jobs have been passed down through family and entire generations. Michael Reardon, a sophomore at The University of The Holy Cross, has worked at Sands Beach Club for six years and planned to return for a seventh. His two younger sisters have followed in his footsteps and his 14 year old brother hoped to join this upcoming summer.

Sands, a long standing weekend retreat and social beach club sits at the foot of the iconic Rumson bridge leading into Sea Bright New Jersey, one of the towns that was hardest hit by “Super Storm Sandy”.  After two days of relentless battering, Sea Bright, its residents, and most of the businesses that defined the personality of the Jersey shore were obliterated.

With The Sands Beach Club reduced to rubble, all four Reardon’s will be looking for a new place to work this summer.

Like Michael and his siblings, an entire town of teenagers is faced with fear and uncertainty regarding work this summer. Like Sands, almost all beach clubs have been completely destroyed. These beach clubs not only provide work for Little Silver teens, but also ignite business in surrounding restaurants and entertainment establishments—which in turn offers more employment opportunities for local teens and returning college students. 

The complete destruction of the Sands and so many other beachfront attractions will also significantly affect the number of people who visit the Jersey Shore in 2013, and possibly many years to follow given the magnitude of the devastation.  Less people, less spending, fewer businesses, and fewer jobs all add up to a very unfamiliar challenge for a group of eager workers.

Michael himself hopes to find work in the rebuilding process, “I want to help out in any way shape or form. I’m trying to restore the shore, that’s my home that has made me who I am today.” 

This is the mindset of the many teens and returning college students as the rebuilding begins.  The workload is massive and help is needed, but such an undertaking and the demand level for unskilled construction labor will be a completely new animal for this group of young workers.

How do they find such work? Where do you start? Am I capable of a summer filled with carrying wood and pushing wheel barrels full of cement along the beachfront of eight to ten hours a day?  Will these jobs be available to me or will they go to others with experience or the thousands who are converging on New Jersey right now to grab these jobs before these kids have a chance?

These are all new questions and concerns racing through the heads of hopeful and anxious teens that are used to a far different employment landscape in New Jersey. Many available jobs can’t wait for school to recess or college kids to return. Things have to start happening right now. There is an urgency to get people back in their homes, return some level of normalcy and hope to have some resemblance of a summer attraction for potential tourists. 

What will all of this look like with the new reality of life after “Super Storm Sandy”?

This summer will be far different than any in this area could have ever imagined.   The signs of the devastation will still be clear.  There will be holes in the landscape that may never return.  Iconic amusements and vacation spots that accounted for so many childhood memories are in many cases wiped off the map and will never return. 

With that, the job opportunities in such places are also gone forever.  Although there is a strong urgency to rebuild, questions still remain on how it will be done and how long it will take. Beach clubs and oceanside businesses that want to start over need to tackle insurance costs and may face strict sanctions on the construction of their foundations.

One thing is certain: There is a lot of work to be done. Many of these employers worked so hard to hold onto their beachside businesses, in the process employing the local kids for a summer and continue what were generations of memories on the Jersey Shore.

The extraordinary circumstances will inevitably pose unique and daunting challenges for Little Silver teens, as well as the surrounding towns that rely on the same employment opportunities. The 14 and 15-year-old kids may have to wait longer for them to enter the workforce. The kids older than them may have to get creative in order to find work. Hurricane Sandy has presented a new reality for an entire generation.

Donovan’s Reef, a famous, renowned outdoor party scene with several bars, which attracts a full-scale dichotomy of age groups in Sea Bright, holds a simple but declarative sign outside its decimated structure that reads: “We will rebuild.”

For Little Silver residents, the summer after Sandy will be the hardest and in many cases, the most difficult of their lives. But one thing this is for sure: They will rebuild, they will recover, and they will revive the Jersey Shore.

-Chris Collins