NORMAN — POINT PLEASANT BEACH, N.J. — A week after Superstorm Sandy pummeled the East Coast, wiping out entire communities, residents were bracing for yet another potentially damaging storm.
A nor’easter taking shape Monday in the Gulf of Mexico was expected to begin its march up the coast, eventually passing within 50 to 100 miles of the wounded New Jersey coastline Wednesday. The storm was expected to bring winds of up to 55 mph, coastal flooding, up to 2 inches of rain along the shore, and several inches of snow to Pennsylvania and New York.
One of the biggest fears was that the storm could bring renewed flooding to parts of the shore where Sandy wiped out natural beach defenses and protective dunes.
“It’s going to impact many areas that were devastated by Sandy,” said Bruce Terry, the lead forecaster for the National Weather Service.
Some communities were considering again evacuating neighborhoods that were hit hard by Sandy and where residents had only recently been allowed to return.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg decided against a new round of evacuations.
“When Sandy was coming in, all the signs said that we were going to have a very dangerous, damaging storm, and I ordered a mandatory evacuation of low-lying areas,” he said. “In this case, we don’t think that it merits that. It is a different kind of storm.”
In Point Pleasant Beach, N.J., Laura DiPasquale was frantically going through dozens of black plastic trash bags that volunteers had stuffed full of her household belongings and brought to the curb, trying to make sure nothing she intended to keep had gotten tossed out with debris like waterlogged drywall. Already, she had found treasured Christmas ornaments amid the detritus.
“I don’t know where anything is; I can’t even find my checkbook,” she said. “I have no idea what’s in any of these bags. And now another storm is coming and I feel enormous pressure. I don’t know if I can do this again. It is so overwhelming.”
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