Blogfinger

Roof debris covers the yard in back of the Auditorium. Photo by Paul Goldfinger

UPDATE, 8:45 p.m. Tuesday — Neptune schools are closed on Wednesday. Also, regular trash pick-up will resume on Thursday. Bulk items should be placed at the curb and the Township will try to get into every neighborhood to collect them.  Do not put gas, propane, oil or any hazardous material with the garbage. — Charles Layton

UPDATE, 5:00 p.m. Tuesday — Jersey Central Power & Light advises that power will be out for 8 to 15 days in our area. You read that right — 8 to 15 days. According to a Neptune Township email, “They are fixing the infrastructure first then they will move to restore neighborhoods. To report a power outage please call JCP&L at 1-888-544-4877.” No further details were given. Attempts to reach Mayor Randy Bishop, Deputy Mayor Eric Houghtaling and Committeewoman Mary Beth Jahn by phone were futile during most of Tuesday; their telephone mailboxes were full.

JCP&L is saying part of the problem is the unprecedented storm surge, which flooded numerous substations. The other problem, apparently, is damage from the wind. A spokesman is calling this situation “the most devastating storm in company history.” At least 10 substations are said to be down in New Jersey. — Charles Layton

UPDATE, as of 4:40 p.m. Tuesday — The Neptune Township website now says phones at the Municipal Building and police station are operational again. Those phones had been out of service since Monday evening.

UPDATE, as of 3:15 Tuesday — Ocean Grove may not have been the worst-hit part of Neptune Township, it turns out. Mary Beth Jahn tells us Shark River Hills had it worse. Extreme flooding. Boats in people’s yards. The marina building gone. Of an estimated 400 trees down in Neptune Township, Jahn says, about 200 were in Shark River Hills. — Mary Walton

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By Mary Walton, Paul Goldfinger and Charles Layton

Hurricane Sandy took a very heavy toll. Tuesday morning in Ocean Grove revealed a beachfront in devastation.

Much of the boardwalk is destroyed. Part of the Great Auditorium’s roof is ripped away. The fishing shack at the end of the pier has completely vanished, and the pier itself has suffered damage — planking buckled, pilings a-tilt.

Buildings along the beachfront also suffered. The cupola at the south end, near Bradley Beach, was smashed. The buildings at the north end, near Asbury Park, also took a hit; the building that once was a restaurant was torn wide open on the ocean side. The beach office buildings by the pier were damaged as well, though not as badly.

The boardwalk pavilion at Ocean Pathway remains intact, although filled with sand and strewn all around with storm debris.

Part of the Wesley Lake retaining wall at the North End suffered damage under the strain of the storm. (The weakness of this wall had been a concern for several years, and the Township had had hopes that it could be repaired as part of the North End Redevelopment project.)

There was an air of strangeness about what had been, just one day earlier, our town’s most familiar landmarks. Now, with desert-like sand completely covering large sections of the boardwalk, what had been familiar was almost unrecognizable. Ocean Grovers milled about, took pictures or just gawked. Eventually police arrived and shooed them away from the beachfront.

Although the dunes survived at the north end of the beach, those to the south are gone.

Damage to homes may not have been as bad as was feared, but some homes were inundated after the ocean overtopped the boardwalk Monday night, turning many east-west streets into streams. Deputy Mayor Eric Houghtaling said that even though the Ocean Grove beachfront is a mess, “building damage seems to be minimal except the Great Auditorium took it hard.” He said the Riverside area got hit the worst in the Shark River Hills section of Neptune.

We know of no deaths or injuries, either in Ocean Grove or in Neptune Township.

Ralph DelCampo, administrator of the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association, said although much of the roof of the Great Auditorium was ripped away down to the rafters, there was no initial indication of interior damage to the building. He said the Camp Meeting will move quickly to make temporary repairs.

Ocean Grove residents who chose to remain in their homes have been without electrical power since Monday evening. Many trees and power lines are down. Neptune Township trucks were much in evidence around town Monday morning, as were Neptune police.

Prospects for an early return of electrical power were uncertain. Jersey Central Power & Light said more than 930,000 of its customers were without power and that this number could increase. “Preliminary estimates indicate the possibility for lengthy outages,” the company said in a press release.

The power blackout is making communication difficult. Many Ocean Grovers were running out of power on their only remaining means of communication: their cell phones. Some solved the problem by recharging their phones in their cars.

Speaking of cars, driving in Ocean Grove was hindered by obstacles on Tuesday, including downed tree limbs and dangling electrical wires. Police blocked some streets for safety reasons. The first two blocks in from the ocean were closed to traffic.

One person who didn’t miss a step because of the storm damage was Shiela Parliman, a mail carrier who has worked for 15 years with the U.S. Postal Service. Asked whether people were impressed that she was out on her route as usual Tuesday, she said, “If the idea was good PR for the Post Office, it’s gone the opposite way. People are telling me, ‘I don’t believe the Post Office is making you go out.’ ”

To read our Monday story on Hurricane Sandy, go here.