MANASQUAN, N.J. -- You can see the destruction of Superstorm Sandy just by looking out at the curb.
Landscapes
of destroyed furniture, tree branches and jagged metal stretch for
miles along the streets of once picturesque New Jersey shore towns,
leaving officials wondering how they will get rid of all the garbage.
Cash-starved
communities and waste companies are struggling to haul the debris away
as the piles of trash become even bigger safety hazards.
"It's
been quite a challenge," says Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer. "The bottom
line is as soon as we pick it up, there is a mountain full out there
again."
On a normal day, the city of Hoboken averages about 60
tons of trash. Since the hurricane, workers have been hauling an average
of 300 tons a day and peaked one day at 570 tons.
"It's a public-safety issue, and it's a quality-of life-issue," Zimmer says.
The
city is working with FEMA and the Department of Environmental
Protection to make sure that they continue to get the financial coverage
they need to continue the mass pickups. But cleanup is constant, with
no end in sight.
FULL COVERAGE: Hurricane Sandy
"It's
going to take months," says Mario Schito Jr., president of M&S
Waste Services, which serves Monmouth and Ocean counties in New Jersey.
"Some of the piles are 40 feet long. You could fill up 30% of a garbage
truck just at one house."
Sandy's devastation is taking a big toll
on the company's finances. It takes workers much longer to complete
their routes, and the trash is about five times heavier than usual
because everything is wet.
M&S Waste Services pays by the
pound to dump their trash at the Monmouth County landfill. Normally they
spend about $40,000 a week on dumping, but in each of the past two
weeks they have paid about $35,000 more than usual.
The company
ordered more trucks and hired additional workers to try to stay on top
of the seemingly endless job. On top of the added expenses, the money
just isn't coming in because displaced customers have been unable to pay
bills.
"It's emotional," Schito says. "You have no idea what it's
like out there. People are calling crying. They lost their businesses;
they lost their homes; and the debris is still just everywhere, all over
their streets."
Soaking couches, mattresses, fridges, insulation
and bags of trash line the street in front of 58-year-old Maryann
Monaghan's home on Lockwood Avenue in Manasquan, N.J.
Monaghan
has been putting her trash out, and it includes her entire first floor -
everything from furniture, paperwork and photo albums to appliances,
sheet rock, hardwood floors and carpeting.
"We just gutted absolutely everything," she says.
Now,
the trash is on the street waiting to be picked up. "Little by little
it's all been going," she says. "People come with trucks and take things
that they can use to make money off of, like refrigerators that could
use scrap metal."
Businesses are just as hard hit as residents.
Outside of motels are the televisions, carpeting, insulation and bedroom
furniture that used to make up the rows of matching bedrooms. Grocery
stores are throwing out tons of food ruined by flooding and power
outages.
On New York Avenue, a grill, mattresses, doors, broken
bookshelves, couches and tree branches top mounds of trash that stretch
along eight houses.
On Harvard Avenue, a broken piano sits alone
in front of a dark home. Just a few yards away is a broken highchair and
a rowboat in pieces.
USA Today