Hurricane Sandy was destructive to the environment as well as homes and businesses. Assemblywoman Grace Spencer, chair of the environment committee, told NJ Today Managing Editor Mike Schneider that officials need to consider engineered beaches for the future and ensure raw sewage isn’t going to enter waterways, as it has done after the hurricane. Spencer was able to tour devastated areas of the Jersey Shore and said she believes the damage in the state could exceed Gov. Chris Christie’s estimate.
Spencer said she encountered damage that looked like “World War IV” with homes knocked off foundations and other pushed a block and onto other homes. She said nothing could have prepared her for the scenes, despite media coverage. “Pictures could not tell the story of actually seeing it. To see the homes that had caught fire, to see the charred remains. To see it was just emotional for me because I thought of the people that lived there, the people who had homes there,” she said.
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Spencer is also the vice chair of the financial institution and insurance committee. She said insurance companies need to get on board to cover their customers. She has heard stories of insurance companies not evaluating claims properly and not providing all the coverage they should. She had a message for the companies.
“If they’re watching they better get on board because New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance will track you down and you will be held accountable because now is not the time to nickel and dime these people who have been tragically impacted by the storm,” Spencer said.
Spencer said three constituents with three different insurance companies have contacted her and said their insurance companies have only offered them roughly 65 percent of the damages that have been estimated by an outside contractor and the insurance companies’ appraisers. “That’s not right, it’s not reasonable and it’s not fair,” she said, adding the committee will be prepared to take action against insurance companies when appropriate.
The impact of Hurricane Sandy should be a wake-up call about the environment, according to Spencer. “Certainly water levels are rising in this state and it’s a fair analysis of what’s happening across the world. We need to start making more conscious and more preparatory action in how we deal with construction on the Jersey Shore,” she said. “We can’t go back and rebuild the way we once built on the Jersey Shore because as the flood plains rise, as more flood zones are being identified, we can’t continue to do the same thing.”
The Passaic Valley Sewage Commission’s Newark treatment facility was overwhelmed during Hurricane Sandy, which caused raw sewage to enter several waterways. Spencer said the treatment facility wasn’t prepared for the storm, but admitted it was a rare event.
“Now they have to clean it up, make do with what they have, fix it, get back on board and prepare for the next storm and make sure that they have the adequate means in place to ensure that this doesn’t happen again,” Spencer said. “Tons of sewage, raw sewage … is flowing into our rivers and we can’t have that because not only does it jeopardize the lives of the people that live in the community but it’s contaminating our environment and we can’t have it.”
Spencer said New Jersey doesn’t currently have the money to rebuild after Hurricane Sandy but she said state officials are looking to the federal government and FEMA for help. But she said the price tag may be much greater than officials anticipate.
“Thirty billion dollars is what the governor estimated it to be. After the tour I took, it’s not $30 billion,” Spencer said. “We’re looking anywhere north of $30 billion and south of $100 billion.”