My world revolves around technology — and I am always amazed by the power of it — the newest cars, computers, tablets, smartphones, GPS systems, and so on. But last week, I was reminded of the power of a far greater force — that of Mother Nature.
Hurricane Sandy roared up the eastern seaboard, leaving an unprecedented amount of destruction in her path. I heard all the forecasts and watched as businesses in my coastal town of Spring Lake, N.J., boarded up their stores and taped up their windows. Sure, the weather forcasters were showing all kinds of ominous storm tracking models on TV, and yet there were all the jokes about the “Frankenstorm” and “Hallowind” coming since it was anticipated to hit us around Halloween. Somehow I found it hard to believe we wouldn’t come through it without too much damage. Since when did a hurricane with any real juice left make it up to New Jersey anyway?
Well, as I write this from a hotel lobby in Connecticut after being displaced from my home for the last eight days, I guess Sandy had her say. I was able to walk up to the shoreline and see what was once the boardwalk. I have seen some of the pictures online of neighboring towns like Belmar and Manasquan that will need millions of dollars and incredible manpower to rebuild.
As a shore community, so many businesses rely on the summer months, and now all of that is in question. Then, of course, there is the busy remote start winter season just ahead for the Northeast. Many businesses, even as I write this, were not open. A round of phone calls to area mobile electronics businesses was met with silence on the other end. A few retailers just had gotten power back and were trying to get up and running.
The boardwalk ripped apart at Spring Lake, N.J.
For John Henry, owner of Euro Car in Shrewsbury, N.J., who’s been in business for 26 years, the storm couldn’t have come at a worse time. “We were down for about a week and just got our power back on over the weekend, but there is no point in being open,” he said. “People can’t get gas; they can’t go anywhere.”
Thankfully, he added, there was no damage to the building where the business is now, but the bigger issue is that the aftermath of the storm is delaying a planned relocation to a new, larger facility in the neighboring town of Red Bank.
“Our new building isn’t finished, so we couldn’t move in, but now we’ll have to wait a bit longer since all of that work had to stop during the storm,” Henry said. “It is difficult enough to move a business, but now we’re doing it right as the busy season is coming up. It’s just been a nightmare — and who knows when it will end. It looks like it could be a wash for the rest of the month.”
Auto Audio, based in Neptune, N.J., for 35 years was open, but not quite operational on Monday, Nov. 5. “I am in today, but just resetting things and getting realigned,” said Owner Mark Kachersky. “Like all the other businesses in town, we’re just trying to get our sticks together. Around here, we’ve got $175 million in damage. People are just devastated and we’re concerned with our local citizens. The focus for them right now is getting their homes and their lives together.”
Barring any more drama from the approaching Nor’easter, Kachersky was anticipating things would get somewhat back to normal in the next week to 10 days. “We are hoping to get back on track with some early holiday sales and with our remote start business which is really important this time of year,” he said.
