Destroyed Homes on Toms River Barrier Island Creating Unforeseen Questions

Your house, rocked from its foundation by the powerful surge of Hurricane Sandy, manages to float down the street and make a right turn up the block.

Or, your undersized lot now has three of your neighbors' homes sitting on it.

The questions that arise from this nightmare are mind-boggling, but still deserve an answer, said Toms River Office of Emergency Management Director Paul Daley.

As his daily tasks shift from coordinating emergency response to now facilitating the layers of administration for FEMA and Toms River, Daley gets many very specific questions on disaster response thrown his way.

But in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, so many questions were unfathomable.

One homeowner returned to assess damages to her Ortley Beach home and found three other homes had crashed into her property, Daley said.

"She can't get a hold of any of the homeowners," Daley said. "What does that person do?"

With more than 225 properties severely damaged in Ortley Beach, there's also more than 3,000 residents displaced, said township officials previously.

In some cases homes were washed away, sending oceanfront properties into a mess of rubble into Barnegat Bay.

A schedule in place through Dec. 7 has barrier island residents alternating specific days of access depending on their street address. For example, Dec. 3 has residents who live in the middle section of Ortley Beach (Washington Avenue to Rt. 35 South) allowed in to their homes starting 8 a.m.

And yet the damage is such that Daley has received questions wondering when you have access if your street address is in one section but your house was floating into another.

"I've had people call and ask 'My address is in a section that has access on Tuesday but my house is now located in a section that has access on Wednesday. When do I go in?'" Daley said. "Figuring that out is really happening."