Demolition work began Thursday on a house swept nearly intact into Barnegat Bay in Mantoloking. The house has been one of the defining images of the Oct. 29 storm.
Mantoloking was the hardest-hit Jersey shore town. All 521 of its homes were damaged, and more than 200 were destroyed by the storm.
The ocean cut a channel through to the bay, a breach that had to be repaired with an emergency engineering effort.
The home, sitting in the water some 200 feet from the edge of the bay, is one of eight nearly intact homes that Sandy pushed into bays. Two other virtually intact Mantoloking homes were swept into Barnegat Bay, while one home in Monmouth County's Union Beach was pushed into Raritan Bay. Four others in Cumberland County's Lawrence Township were washed into Delaware Bay virtually intact.
"These homes, just like the Jet Star roller coaster swept off Casino Pier and sitting in the ocean off Seaside Heights, have become iconic images of just how powerful and devastating Sandy was, and how this historic storm changed so many lives," Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Bob Martin said. "The removal of these homes marks a symbolic benchmark in the progress we've made as New Jersey continues to recover and rebuild."
---
