Sandy victims frustrated by sluggish recovery 4 years after storm

On the eve of the fourth anniversary of Superstorm Sandy, there are many at the Jersey Shore who say that they are still not fully recovered. Residents affected by the storm say that recovery has been

News 12 Staff

Oct 29, 2016, 6:26 AM

Updated 2,872 days ago

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On the eve of the fourth anniversary of Superstorm Sandy, there are many at the Jersey Shore who say that they are still not fully recovered.
Residents affected by the storm say that recovery has been slow and more needs to be done to get people back inside their homes.
Trevor Newman is a Sandy ombudsman and works one-on-one with residents to help them get the assistance they need to rebuild.
"[Brick Township] saw it," he says. "After the storm they thought it would be important to have a person who could help people though the different programs with the questions they might have."
Brick Township and Union Beach each have about 30 percent of residents still needing to get back into their homes. For Mantoloking the number stands at 20 percent, and Sea Bright has 10 percent still displaced.
"In some of the cases, some people don't want to make the repairs," Newman says. "They just want to move on."
Gov. Chris Christie felt some of the frustration Friday at an event in Seaside Heights remembering the fourth anniversary of Sandy. Protesters interrupted the governor's event and chanted that they wanted to go back home.
But the governor says that New Jersey is coming back stronger than ever.
"In four years, we've gone from 365,000 homes [destroyed] to 1,700 homes...We've also maintained our job growth in New Jersey," Christie said.
The governor also says that New Jersey's utility companies have come back stronger since the storm and can better handle the damage.