Berkeley Residents Come Together, Start to Clean Up After Sandy

With over 25,000 Berkeley Township residents still without power, many residents are coming together, assessing the damage and trying to regroup after Hurricane Sandy.

“It’s like a war zone down here. There are boats and sea doo’s everywhere. There is a boat through a neighbor’s home,” said Larry Aliseo of Travelor's Way in Bayville. 

After staying with family in Toms River for two days he decided to check on his waterfront home. On Wednesday, he found flooding under the house, the pool and back yard drowning and their garage full of water.  “The outside of our home is a disaster. Our entire yard is underwater and our garage is flooded, but thankfully the inside of our house is dry.”

Now, he says there is nothing left to do but start cleaning up, “I got the generator running, but there is no heat and we’ve lost everything in the refrigerator. All we can do is try to start cleaning up, but we can’t move back in until the power is back on.”

Kelly Titus of Shorwood Dr. in Bayville said most of the water in her neighborhood has receded and neighbors are now facing the effects of the intense flooding.

“Most of the water is receding, now thank God. Homes two houses down from my house were under water,” she said. “The insides are just destroyed, but there hasn’t been too much damage from the wind to outsides of the homes, it is all water damage inside.”

Titus got her power back last night and she says everyone on her street is doing what they can to help those who are still in the dark and dealing with porperty damage.

“Honestly, everyone has really come together. Everyone just feels horrible,” she said. “Everyone is helping each other. Like if you need to charge your phone or you need water, everyone’s helping cut down trees and move the branches.”

According to Titus, the Shop Rite on Rt. 9 has re-opened with whatever supplies they had left over after people rushed to prepare for the storm. But, traffic lights are still out and there is no gas to be found, "so it's important for us all to be there for eachother."