I am hearing that it will be 6-8 months before people can return to live on LBI in New Jersey. It does not sound unreasonable given the threads I've read above.

I don't know why so many people are in shock and awe about this happening in New Jersey, and I am from the area. It is a very low barrier island, with hardly any dunes. It is extremely overbuilt. And, it has a very long history of destructive storms and hurricanes starting from colonial times until the early 20th century... there was a hurricane that hit hard in 1903 and washed away much of the existing shore community infrastructure, including rail lines. My relatives say there were some close calls in 1944 and 1962, but that's it. Everyone discovered the shore after WW2 and it was overdeveloped. In fact, the Jersey Shore has been extremely lucky, given its history, that nothing happened from 1945 until now. We were on borrowed time. Plus, many of the early homes that were built on those barrier island were really just $1000 summer shacks ONLY. In recent decades, people started building massively expensive homes in areas such as Seaside Park and people began living there year round.

I'm not saying it was deserved by any means, but instead, that everyone should pay more attention to the history of the area and not be so shocked that this happened. Building in these areas is another question entirely.