Too cold even for the seagulls, the Jersey Shore in winter is a desolate place. Up and down the abandoned beaches a fringe of snow and ice, like the frayed hem of an old wedding dress, sketches the edge of the last high tide. Only a handful of well-bundled souls, and a black Lab with no birds to chase, roam the ocean’s edge. Shuttered and silent, the Jersey Shore in winter is supposed to be bleak, but today, paused between storm and summer, 100 days after Hurricane Sandy and 110 days until Memorial Day, the shore remains a mournful place — struggling not to be. 

For New Jerseyans, Oct. 29, 2012 will forever be a line of demarcation, separating what used to be from what is. In the few brief hours in between, a ferocious onslaught of wind and water claimed 39 lives; damaged or destroyed nearly 350,000 homes, and in the process created more than 2.5 million cubic yards of debris — enough to raise a football field 80 stories high.china wholesale bridesmaid dresses 

One hundred days later, the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy is now all about what comes next. No one place is predictive of what New Jersey will look like in three months, or six months or even a year. Many are still waiting — some to move back home, others to receive insurance checks, most to make one of the biggest decisions of their lives: rebuild, reopen, or walk away. For these people, however, they must first figure out whether they lie in FEMA’s new flood maps, and if they do,Asymmetric neckline dress where, and depending on where, how high they must raise their homes to avoid onerous insurance rates. The logistics have staggered more than a few residents into a kind of post-disaster stasis. 

The Jersey Shore,simple plus size wedding dresses with short sleeves in essence, is waiting for the waiting to be over. Everyone wants to be busy again. And yet even amid the uncertainty, the coast is stuttering back to life, town by town, street by street, house by house.lace short bridesmaids dress china 

On Nov. 2, four days after the storm, Atlantic City’s Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa reopened. Two weeks after that, the barricades on Route 36 in Sea Bright came down. A month later, the PATH station in Hoboken sprang back to life. The first week of January, the Mantoloking Bridge was open to regular traffic and on Jan. 25, Gov. Chris Christie announced Island Beach State Park would allow walking, sport fishing and four-wheel driving. 

In Mantoloking, the last bit of Route 35 that was still closed to the public was opened on Friday.Beautiful Sheath Wedding Dresses And on Monday, at 8 a.m., the state of emergency in Toms River’s Ortley Beach section, one of the hardest hit communities, was lifted. 

Less than 1 percent of Ortley Beach’s 2,000 homes escaped damage, according to officials, and a third of the homes remain uninhabitable. 

"We went through a rebuild with utilities," said Toms River Police Chief Michael Mastronardy. ""We’re waiting for gas and electric in some areas." 

Mastronardy has no doubt Ortley Beach will be back, but said many residents are still trying to figure out if, and how, to raise their homes to meet the new flood standards. 

In a state passionate about home rule, perhaps a fitful recovery should come as no surprise. For small businesses, waiting for insurance checks or for financial assistance from the $50.5 billion Sandy aid bill that was signed by President Obama last week, it’s been a high-wire act.