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By Ted Greenberg • Published October 28, 2025 • Updated on October 28, 2025 at 7:21 pm
As Jamaica braces for one of the strongest storms in its history, people back at the Jersey Shore draw parallels between the two storms. NBC10’s Ted Greenberg has the story.
Hurricane Melissa is making history in Jamaica one day before the 13th anniversary of Superstorm Sandy. The timing is a sobering reminder of just how vulnerable coastal communities are to the growing threats of climate change.
“The nerves are really high right now,” Drew Huggard from Galloway Township, New Jersey said. He’s stranded in Jamaica along with seven of his relatives.
Inside their resort in Montego Bay, guests are praying through song. They were moved last night to a ballroom without any windows.
The family was unable to get a flight home ahead of the storm. “It’s very intense out there right now. The doors are moving. They’re boarded from the inside and outside,” Jerri Camp of Galloway Township said.
Joe Mangino is a Sandy survivor, “During Sandy we lost everything. Recovery took a long time…many years…and to see what those people [in Jamaica] are going through, it’s unthinkable.”
The New Jersey Organizing Project marked the 13 years since Sandy at an event in Seaside Park Tuesday. Mangino stressed the urgent need for stronger policies on storm protection and climate resilience.
“Climate change isn’t a hoax, it’s not a distant threat, it’s flooding our streets right now,” Derel Stroud, Neptune Township committeeman said.
They’re concerned about how federal budget cuts and the current government shutdown could impact how the state and local communities prepare and respond to natural disasters.
“Anything that was in the planning process, any projects that were being implemented are paused until further notice,” Hana Katz with Rebuild by Design said. “If we were to have a disaster now, especially to the extent of Sandy and the government were to be shut down, we would have a completely disjointed response.”
According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Sandy was a storm that caused at least 147 deaths (12 in New Jersey and two in Pennsylvania) and an estimated $88.5 billion in damage in the U.S. It was the largest Atlantic hurricane on record by width, making landfall near Atlantic City, New Jersey on October 29, 2012.