Cleanup has begun in parts of Atlantic and Cape May counties after damage from Monday's powerful storm.

All Action Watersports owner Raymond Leps says that he remains optimistic after the storm reduced his almost-finished building to rubble.

“My first reaction was, ‘Is anyone hurt?’ They said no. I said, ‘We’re good.’ They’re like, ‘But, Ray…’ I said, ‘No buts. We’re good.’” Leps says.

Leps says that the boats and watercrafts were inside the building but were not damaged.

“It was all on the outside because the building actually lifted and went over top of itself,” he says.

Leps says that he will rebuild and is still planning to operate as usual this summer.

The storm also damaged a section of the Wildwood boardwalk near the convention center. Many of the boards were pulled up.

“I got the phone call, maybe around 10:30 a.m. to come up to the boardwalk and I couldn’t believe what I saw,” says Wildwood Mayor Pete Byron. “And then maybe around 7:30 p.m. last night I took a ride around town and saw a lot of the aftermath. It wasn’t too bad. There were some signs down, some roofs blown off motels, such as that. Luckily no one was hurt.”

The estimated cost to repair the boardwalk is around $250,000 – much less than the mayor says he initially anticipated. The boardwalk is currently shut down due to the coronavirus outbreak. Byron says that repairs should take less than a month.

The Congress Hall hotel in Cape May was also damaged by the storm. Workers were on-site Tuesday to begin repairs.

“It was all of a sudden just dispersed. It felt like we were in the middle of a hurricane just all at once and the winds were so intensely fierce. We heard some noises and some pops and immediately drove around and looked around,” says Congress Hall managing partner Curtis Bashaw.

The hotel is also closed due to the virus so no guests or employees were inside at the time – something for which Bashaw says he is thankful.

“Had that stormed happened and there had been a lot of people around, it could’ve been a different situation,” he says.