'Like we were in a war — and we lost': How Union Beach woman rebuilt home after Sandy

UNION BEACH - During Superstorm Sandy, Laura Hallam evacuated her bayfront home on Brook Street in Union Beach and stayed several blocks inland.

She didn’t know exactly what was happening to her two-story house, but when she spotted a boat floating through the borough streets, she took that as a bad sign.

“The following morning I drove down to the bayfront and saw the second story of my home in the street,” she said. “The first floor, it just washed away.”

Thus began, in late October 2012, the most extensive and painstaking disaster recovery effort in Jersey Shore history. Many of her neighbors never returned, but Hallam resolved to rebuild, fighting through thickets of red tape and government bureaucracy, leaning on the kindness of strangers and the efforts of goodwill groups, sidestepping looters and fraudster contractors. It was a mountain climb, a maze and a minefield rolled together.

“People just went away,” Hallam said. “There was nothing left standing. It looked like we were in a war — and we lost.”

Fighting back:In Ocean County, this 'best-kept secret' is working to predict the next Superstorm Sandy

Three years later, Hallam moved into a new home on the same corner lot. Now, a decade later, the 69-year-old retiree still remembers the vivid details — from finding her late mother’s diamond engagement ring in the rubble to the name of the 23-year-old Salvation Army rookie from Neptune who helped her navigate the most crucial part of the rebuild.

The personal stories of Sandy and its aftermath must be chronicled, even at a distance, because their lessons continue to reverberate. This is one of them.

Is sand the best defense? $500M later, Jersey Shore's fate in powerful storms is uncertain

'Horror stories every week'

The morning after the floodwaters receded, Hallam came to a grim realization: She’d lost just about everything.

“I found furniture on the other side of the (Flat) Creek bridge within the following weeks,” she said.

She also found her mother’s diamond ring and other jewelry in a case buried in sand, plus an antique porcelain teapot her father had given her — unscathed, incredibly.

“That was a sign from above,” she said.

Her first task was to list everything that disappeared or got destroyed.

“I went room to room in my head and started writing it all down,” she said. “I wound up with 36 pages of items.”

After she filled a notebook, Hallam started working out of a large binder. Eventually, one binder turned into 10. Having grown up in Keyport, she never intended to leave the Bayshore area. The fact that her flood insurance would cover nearly all of the rebuild provided another incentive to stay put.

The next storm:NJ homeowners are using old flood data to protect their homes, putting 'lives at risk'

But she had to find a contractor, which was treacherous business. Staying in Hunterdon County with friends, she returned to the Bayshore each Sunday as an organist at two area churches, where tales of fraud were in the air.

“I heard horror stories every week,” Hallam said. “Things like, ‘We paid this contractor and he never came back.’”

Hallam explored 25 different contractors. For financial purposes she listed herself as her own contractor, so all payments flowed through her account.

“You can’t be so upset about your situation that you forget to think it out and process what’s going on,” she said. “And you pray a lot.”

Little morale boosters helped, like the strangers who would drive by and hand her gift cards when she visited the lot. Eventually, she reached a door she could not open — she had to get her new house lifted.

Enter Heather Hulteen.

Still helping:10 years after Sandy, church-based group still delivers free furniture, no questions asked

A valuable lesson

Hulteen, now Heather Green, grew up in the Shark River Hills section of Neptune and was fresh out of Montclair State University when she joined The Salvation Army’s New Jersey Division and was assigned to the emergency assistance center in Union Beach. A year later she was promoted to disaster case manager. Her first case was Laura Hallam's.

“Laura was extremely organized, which was very helpful,” Green said. “Usually when someone is experiencing a crisis, organization isn’t necessarily the first thing they focus on. Laura is also very resilient and one of the most determined people I had the opportunity to work with.”

At any given time in the three years following Sandy, Green said she handled 30 to 50 cases at a time. All told, she estimates she personally interacted with at least 200 rebuilding families and, in coordinating with partner organizations, had a hand in about 2,000 cases.

“We had to move through so many barriers at the state level, the county level, the local level,” Green said. “So much paperwork, so much red tape, so much chaos to organize.”

Thanks to Hallam’s fastidiousness, Green said, “we were able to move through the checklist rather than be overwhelmed by the larger picture.”

Today, Green is The Salvation Army of New Jersey’s statewide director of human services. The lessons from Sandy helped form the blueprint for a more efficient response to the havoc wreaked by Hurricane Ida last year. Now the process of getting folks back in their homes begins right away, during the cleanup phase.

“With Ida we were in that case-management phase so much quicker,” Green said. “We knew what we needed to have in place paperwork-wise, grant-wise.”

The Jersey Shore's most haunted house? Strange new developments at Bayshore mansion

Green is 33 now, and she looks back at Hallam’s case as the ultimate on-the-job education.

“It was folks like Laura who really helped shape my career,” she said. “There was an element of, ‘Am I doing this correctly? Am I helping people?'"

The answer sits at the corner of Brook and Union avenues in Union Beach, raised 18.5 feet above the ground. Despite the nightmare of 2012, Laura Hallam is not worried about the next big storm. Like the diamond that emerged from the sand, she’s here to stay.

Jerry Carino is community columnist for the Asbury Park Press, focusing on the Jersey Shore’s interesting people, inspiring stories and pressing issues. Contact him at jcarino@gannettnj.com.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: On Sandy anniversary, Union Beach woman recalls how rebuilt home