00:00:00TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: My name is Trudi-Ann Lawrence. Today is August
twenty-sixth. Can you state your name?
CHERYL MARA: Cheryl Mara.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Okay, and how old you are, if you don't mind?
CHERYL MARA: Forty-three.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: And for the audience, can you tell me your ethnicity?
CHERYL MARA: White.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Okay. How long have you lived in this home?
CHERYL MARA: Ten years.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: And do you mind sharing the cost of the house when you
purchased it?
CHERYL MARA: $161,000
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: And how many rooms are in this house?
CHERYL MARA: There's three bedrooms, there's a den, living room, dining room,
kitchen, so maybe eight?
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Okay, and is there a specific reason why you chose this house?
CHERYL MARA: Well, I like the area. I like that it had two steps coming in and
out [Both laugh] because I do suffer some medical issues, so eventually I'm
going to need to have lower steps, but now it's not that case anymore. But I
still love the house, I love the area, so I'll deal with it. I'll figure it out.
00:01:00
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Okay, how long have you lived in this neighborhood?
CHERYL MARA: Ten years.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Okay, and where did you live before?
CHERYL MARA: In Wall, in rural New Jersey.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Okay, and can you tell me about your family, who makes up
[unclear] and who lives here with you?
CHERYL MARA: Yeah, it's me, my daughter who's twenty-three, and my granddaughter
who's gonna be two.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Okay, so what's your occupation?
CHERYL MARA: I am a registered marketing associate and assistant vice president
for Morgan Stanley.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Okay, and how long have you been doing that?
CHERYL MARA: Twenty years.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Do you mind sharing your salary or your income bracket?
CHERYL MARA: I'd rather not do that.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Okay, and what do you like about living in New Jersey?
CHERYL MARA: Well, I like the beaches, I like the season, and I do like that you
can get anywhere you want pretty quick, up and down the entire state of New
Jersey, so the convenience.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Okay, so would you say it's the water that attracted you to
this area?
00:02:00
CHERYL MARA: I was born and raised in the area. Born and raised in Wall.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Okay, so, tell me about the community and the neighborhood
in which you live.
CHERYL MARA: Well, I've been here, like I said, the ten years, and when I moved
in here, I'm shy so I don't really know and I won't go out, but I wound up
getting involved in a charitable organization to start to know some of the
parents that my daughter would be hanging out with, and started meeting some of
the neighbors, and it just, it feels like family. A lot of us are very close and
even with the storm, we were in and out of people's houses, you know, showering
here, eating over there, chit-chatter over there, so we were back and forth.
This became a very close-knit, and I enjoy it. You know, I work with the kids in
the area through the school, my volunteer projects, and I really just like the people.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Okay. Are there- is there anything that you'd like to tell
00:03:00me concerning the schools and the economics of the community
CHERYL MARA: Well, after the storm, obviously it's tough because so many people
lost everything. They lost jobs as well as homes. They're not even back in the
town. Some are not coming back. So, people are suffering right now.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Okay.
CHERYL MARA: The school systems are struggling with the kids, they want to be in
their school. They want to be in their town. So, you know, hopefully it'll come
back, but right now everything is a struggle.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Okay, so when did you first hear the storm was coming?
CHERYL MARA: About a week before is when I really focused in on it. You know, I
mean I had seen the reports that it was coming up, but as you started seeing it
hit the other areas, you realized that this could hit us. So, about a week, I
guess I was really watching it.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Okay, and what were your first thoughts? What did you expect?
CHERYL MARA: Well, like every other storm, hype. I thought it was all hype. In
00:04:00fact, the day before, I joked. I kept saying, I told my boss I was working from
home because I knew I was going to be evacuated. Which, I didn't go, because the
water's never come to my property, ever. In the backyard, I've had it come up,
but not to the house. You know, I joked about it. I said, "worst case scenario,
we'll take the animals, we'll take the kids, and we'll go up in the attic." And
sure enough, we ended up in the attic. It was a little scary, but it was- I
don't know, you don't believe them because they hype it so much.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Right.
CHERYL MARA: You know, so you kind of just- we all did. We all stuck it out.
Most of us did on the block. I think the neighbors next door were the only ones
that actually left. So, it was hard, but…
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: How did you prepare?
CHERYL MARA: Well, you batten down the hatches. You put everything up. You lock
everything down. Like I said, I didn't get too crazy in the garage because I
didn't believe it was really coming. You know, we taped the windows, as you can
00:05:00still see. There's tape on the window. Everything was taped. Everything was
locked up. We made sure all the windows were secure, even sticking sticks
underneath the bottoms just to make sure nothing could fall, or whatever. Just,
extra precautionary. You know, lock the things, put everything away that we
could. It was- you know, become a flying object, and we hunkered down .We had
food, water in the house, flashlight, batteries-
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Did you go to the stores to try to get any extra supplies?
CHERYL MARA: I didn't because I generally have it in anyway.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Okay.
CHERYL MARA: So, I really didn't need it, and I wasn't expecting for as long as
it went out, that we couldn't go. Good thing, though, Target was up the next
day so we were able to get into Target and get what we didn't have.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Okay. Do you think that there was adequate warning?
CHERYL MARA: I think there were adequate warnings. The problem with the
warnings, is like I said before, they've sent them before and nothing's come up.
00:06:00
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Right.
CHERYL MARA: So, you can send the warnings, but if you're not serious about
them, people aren't abiding by them.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Okay. Did you- so, you didn't evacuate, though?
CHERYL MARA: I didn't. I was told to but we did not. We wound up getting
evacuated that night.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Okay.
CHERYL MARA: By boat.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Oh.
CHERYL MARA: Yes, the boat actually came right into the house.
[whispering, both laugh.]
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Take me through the day of the storm. Where were you, what
was the first sights of storm, weather conditions?
CHERYL MARA: Well, I was here working in the back. I was in the den. And my
daughter and granddaughter were here in the living room. They were watching TV.
I was on the computer, doing work for work, and I kept getting Facebook pops,
showing me pictures of Keyport, and I'm getting texts showing me pictures of
Keyport and Union Beach, with the waters already pouring over, and I had taken a
drive early in the morning before they stopped me from using the roads, and it
00:07:00was already over, you know, coming into the streets at that point, which was,
like eight in the morning.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Okay, was this Sunday or Monday?
CHERYL MARA: This was Monday morning.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Oh, okay.
CHERYL MARA: Yeah, Monday morning. Sunday, I know that the Keyport had started
already by Sunday.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Okay.
CHERYL MARA: We had gotten the texts that they, I think the restaurant called
Yesterday's was already under water at that point. So, we did that. I worked up
until the power went out, and my daughter and I were in here playing a dice game
on the couch while the baby was sleeping in her crib. Lights went down. No, we
were told that the power was going out by six. They were gonna shut it down
precautionary. Well, by five-something, we had no power and then I heard- you
know, I had the front door open. There was a screen door there at that time.
It's not, obviously, now. And I heard somebody screaming for help. And I had no
water in front of my house, nothing, and she was waist- neck-high, I should say,
00:08:00chest high, in water at the end of the block, down here. So, I'm yelling to her
to come up but she can't hear me, or she's not responding, so I turned around
from that door, came back here to grab my cell phone, which was on the couch. By
the time I got back, the water was coming in. Came up so fast and so quick. The
water wasn't even in front of my neighbor's house at that point, but it came in
with a fury, and that's when everybody to the attic. I took the baby- we woke
the baby up, got her up there. The cats went up there. My daughter got her dogs.
Ran up into the attic. I couldn't tell you how long it was. When I got up there,
I realized there's no way out. We were trapped up there. If the water came in
and stayed in and came up, we were trapped. Very scary at that point.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: I can imagine.
CHERYL MARA: Yeah, and I usually don't freak out, but I lost it up there
[laughs] when I realized that- and it turned out it was a foot and a half of
water in the house, so it really wasn't as bad, but as fast as it came in, we
00:09:00still had another storm- another high tide to come in, so we still had no idea
if the water was coming in, if it was coming up higher and higher. Yeah, so we
obviously called for help. They came that night. It was after eleven when they
got here. I have no idea what time it was-
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Who did you call?
CHERYL MARA: I called the police department, and they were sending the boats,
but they were getting the people who were down by the ocean and who were sitting
on their roofs and getting thrown in the water at that point, before they were
coming here. And obviously, I was fine with that, and then when I realized the
water started to go down, then I was feeling foolish that I had called for help,
but you know, I still had my granddaughter up there and my daughter. I wasn't
worried as much about me, and the animals could stay up there, but I wanted them
out, and my daughter wouldn't go without me. So we wound up leaving the animals
in the attic and just shutting the door, and left them in their crate because we
knew the water wasn't going to get in the attic, but at least they were safe.
00:10:00And we left. They pulled us out of here in a boat. It was, I don't know, eleven,
eleven thirty at night. I have no idea what time we went up. I know it was a
little after five when the power went down. So, then, half hour, hour maybe? I
don't know. It was definitely- it was definitely freaky, watching it come in.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Wow.
CHERYL MARA: And it came in fast. Like I said, you could see the distance from
that door to this wall. It's not that far.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Right.
CHERYL MARA: Maybe about four or five steps. You turn around and go back those
same four or five steps and the water's coming in the house. It just- it came
from- two creeks overflowed and they merged, and that's what happened here. We
didn't even have ocean water. It was creeks.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Okay. When they evacuated you with the boat, where did you go?
CHERYL MARA: To the town hall, to the police station.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Okay. Did you get to sleep that night at all?
CHERYL MARA: No. We wound up- my car, we had moved both cars up to Bradley's
00:11:00parking lot, so once they got us out of here, we got the okay that we could
leave, we were able to walk up there and go to our neighbor's in-laws.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Okay.
CHERYL MARA: So, that's where they went, and I had called them, you know, in my
panic, saying goodbye that night, when I was in the attic, and I said, "I'm
coming, can I come?" She's like, "just come." So by the time we got there, we
were all out of it, chatting and talking, and we watched the sun come up, and we
came back here.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Okay. To your house?
CHERYL MARA: To our houses, yeah.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Okay. So, what was going through your head when you came back?
CHERYL MARA: Well, I knew what to expect from what I had seen when I left, so I
knew that it was damaged in here. You know, we were [unclear] to the top of my
walls in some of the rooms are redone, but they were being redone before the
storm. I had just put brand new hardwood floor down. It had to come up. Yeah, so
00:12:00we were already expecting everything. We did lose the majority of everything.
There's very little left. Which is, you know, it is what it is. This is life,
unfortunately. We live by the shore, and we're gonna get hit. I'm up now, so I
should never have that problem, but I came back in here, I guess I knew what I
saw when I left, and I don't think- I think I was still in shock. I don't think
I even noticed. I just started bagging it and getting it out, bagging it and
getting it out, because we had the baby with us, we had to get this out. I'm an
asthmatic, can't be in here with the mold and all that, so that was the first
thought -- get it out, just get it out. So, that was kind of what we were- I
don't think there was thought process. It was just "move."
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Okay. So, can you describe the scene, the mood of the community?
00:13:00
CHERYL MARA: Oh, it was just, it was hard. People didn't know what to do
anymore. They lost- like I said, people lost their homes. They lost everything.
I mean, there were people's roofs blocks over. We had no idea whose roof it was
in people's yards. You had sheds, you had cars, you had- I mean, I had
belongings that, I mean, I'm still trying to find out. There's a cherub sitting
in my tree out there because I have no idea who it belongs to. I'm trying to
return it to that person, but. I sit it out there every day so someone could
come by and claim it and nobody knows whose it is. It survived the storm, you
know, may be their only belonging left and I'd hate to get rid of it. And that's
what people's thoughts were. You know, the people who were allowed after we came
in and saw our homes. Obviously, we all met outside, and your hugging and sighs
and whatever, and you're back in your home. And I can tell you, to this day,
00:14:00I've taken a few drives when I need a dose of reality. When I get down about
this house, when I'm looking at- and I drive along the ocean where these people
have nothing. Their homes are gone, like, literally are gone. You know, those
people, it's tough. You hear the horror stories everywhere. I thank god every
day I still have my four walls so I can raise this house and continue to move
on. I have so many people I know that have- don't have that, aren't that lucky,
or haven't had the insurance. They have no money to re-do.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: So, your cell phone was still working?
CHERYL MARA: My cell phone never stopped working.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: That's good. What company did you have?
CHERYL MARA: I have Verizon.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Okay, so once you took all the stuff out, did you stay here?
CHERYL MARA: I stayed in this house the entire time. The only time I left was
about two months ago, when they lifted the house. In June, I left, and I came
00:15:00back- I've only been back two weeks, because they took my water away. They took
all the plumbing out in order to lift the house, so I can't stay here with no
plumbing. But I've lived here with no floors, you know, a couple of boards
thrown here and there. Obviously, my daughter and my granddaughter, you see,
they're not here now and they haven't been back.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Okay.
CHERYL MARA: Hopefully, they're coming back this week, but obviously you can see
what they're coming back to. It's not healthy. But she's out of options at this
point of where to stay, so she has to come back. And it's- I don't know, it's
gonna be trying to work with all that.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: How long before power was-?
CHERYL MARA: In this house or on the street?
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Before power came back.
CHERYL MARA: It came back sometime in late December, we got some power. Yes, we
were out six or eight weeks, I think. It was a long time, we were out.
00:16:00
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Your home or the block?
CHERYL MARA: The whole block. We were out for a long time. By the time the power
came back in, we had my- all my electric was underneath the house, so it all had
to be ripped out. My electrician came in and shut down the box, putting three
brand new- the box didn't get wet, just the power lines, so he cut everything,
gave me three outlet to work with. I had construction lights. Thankfully you can
see, I'm open. We ran construction lights through every room, all throughout the
house. I had construction lights in here until April.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Wow.
CHERYL MARA: I had no power in the house except those three outlets. We were
running power tools and that, and the lights. And I finally got floors. I
finally got heat December seventeenth, and we got the power back in April. Full power.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: So, how did you eat and stuff?
CHERYL MARA: Out. I go to the diner. They know me well. I walk in there every
00:17:00day. Everyday. I got three servers there that know me well.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: How long before stores around the area were open?
CHERYL MARA: Well, like I said, Target opened up the first day. It took, I don't
know, maybe a week to get them up, by the time they got- maybe a week, a week or
two. Because they started getting generators hooked up and people started being
able to use- not everything. The gas stations, they were down. I don't remember
how long because I, thankfully, had filled by tank the day before the storm so I
didn't have to worry about it because I didn't know when I would get out again,
so I just figured I'd just store it, I'll get it full because if the storm came
in, I figured I was going to get trapped in the house.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Was the wait for that time long?
CHERYL MARA: For the gas?
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Yes.
CHERYL MARA: It was, yes, my neighbor was running- she had a generator going and
she was running, her and her husband were standing in lines just trying to get
00:18:00some gas, and they could go for hours. They could leave here seven in the
morning, not get back until two, three in the afternoon. And they were local,
but not everybody had them, because there were very few gas stations, at that
point, open.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Okay. Who did you look to for support, for help? Did you
contact FEMA and your insurance companies?
CHERYL MARA: I contacted FEMA first, immediately, because everyone kept saying
you gotta get a FEMA on the phone, get them on the phone. They I finally got
ahold of my- I couldn't get through to my insurance company. Phones were always
busy. I finally go through and got them going. FEMA showed up first, but the
insurance company showed up probably around Thanksgiving. I was lucky to get
FEMA out here pretty quick. My insurance company, not too long after that.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Okay. Who did you work closely with, when it came down to
00:19:00your house?
CHERYL MARA: As far as agencies, or as far as--?
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Agencies and getting it together.
CHERYL MARA: Well, the agencies was, like I said, the only ones that I actually
had was FEMA. They had some supplies at borough hall, they had opened up an area
there. So, I was back and forth with there. But I'm fortunate enough to still
have my job. I'm fortunate enough to have more money than some of the other
people in the area. Not that I have a lot of money, because I have no savings or
nothing, but I was still making enough money, and I didn't want to take from
others who had lost both jobs and homes. I only took bare minimums from them --
water, paper towels, toilet paper, maybe, stuff I couldn't get. You know, so
then I did that, and then basically, my friends came around. I have tremendous,
tremendous friends. Came in here and, I mean, one day I think I had eight people
00:20:00here besides myself. People just, they came in here and they helped me clear it
out. There were piles -- I think they took six piles, huge piles, from my house,
of trash. People came in and that's really who I leaned on. My brother finally
got out- he's in Keansburg. He finally got out of his house. He was trapped in
the house because the water wouldn't go down, for two days. And then he got over
here and he started with it as well. We just kept in. My sister and my
brother-in-law came in from Nebraska for a week, around Thanksgiving, with the
kids. Everybody, even the little guy, seven-year-old, everybody pitched in and
we were just moving forward, trying to- by that point, we had finally gotten
everything out, and then it was a matter of trying to rebuild.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Right. How did you cope?
CHERYL MARA: I think at first it was not about coping. I think it was more about
the shock that you were in and you just- I mean, trust me, we all had our tears.
00:21:00We all went through the stories and, you know, how could this happen to me? Why?
Out of all the houses on the block? The guy next door who sits on the ground and
me are the only two, besides the one on the corner who gets caught every time,
who actually had water in the homes. Everybody else lost things in their
basements. I never had water. He's definitely never had water. She always gets
the water. But we always looked at it, and you get to that point where, "why did
we get this? I don't understand." You know, so you kind of go through that
process. You get angry because they should have fixed the creek, which they
never did. To this day, they still haven't fixed the creek. They still haven't
even cleaned them out yet. The storms are here, and they still haven't cleaned
them out yet. There's still kids toys, and god only knows what's back there now,
because it's so overgrown you can't see in it, either. So, but they haven't been
back to touch them. They've been so busy everywhere else. The creeks haven't
been touched, so god help us if another storm comes in, because the same thing's
00:22:00gonna happen. I won't be affected. The garage, maybe, but not me, but others
will be, and it's, you know, it'll be sad to see that happen yet again. But, you
know, you talk to your friends, my family. You know, my boss went through the
same thing. He's down in Rumson on the water. Same deal, lost everything on the
first floor. And you just, I don't know, I just look at it as this is life. We
get curve balls every day. We can either sit and cry or we can pull our pants
up, get our hands dirty, and move along, rebuild a life. I mean, obviously, at
some point you're gonna get to a point where you're done with this, but this is
life right now. This is what we have. And you're gonna have to move on. So, I'm
just gonna roll up my sleeves and get dirty. Let's go.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: So how did your community cope?
CHERYL MARA: There's a lot of different things. There's still people not coping
00:23:00at all. You know, they're still walking around with anger and- towards the
community, not toward the community but towards the services that were not done,
towards the insurance companies that won't helped them, people that have
foundations that have cracked, that due to the fact that the earth moved and
cracked their foundation, the insurance companies won't pay, so they're angry.
You still have that. You still see that in the papers today, you know, ten
months later and you're still seeing all this. So, I think they did have
counseling, free counseling up at the borough hall, so I know people took
advantage of that, and they opened up another one up in the corner store there.
There's a little corner- used to be a daycare center. It's a little store now,
and they just kind of opened it up in there, go get some goods and counseling.
00:24:00You know, people were definitely feeling- there's lines out there was still,
even in January, February time frame. So, the school's down, but I still think
you have- you know, the kids didn't get back to school, they didn't come back to
their school until- I think the last week of school, they moved them back in
because they wanted to graduate from their school. I don't know why they were
moving back in. I don't know why they didn't just have them come walk but they
insisted that they get them back in. So, I think the community this year will be
a little better because they are going to be back in their school, and, you
know, for the most part people are moving along. You see a lot of construction
going on. But, like I said, people like me, who didn't get the insurance money-
I mean, I got it, but the contracts laughed and said, "which room do you want
done?" with the amount of insurance I got, because my house was so old.
Everything in it was old, which is why I was updating before the storm, and they
00:25:00give the 1958 floors. That's what was in this house. What do you think they're
worth? Zero. That's what they're giving you. My electric cost $6,600. Know what
they gave me? $1,300. Gas was $8,500. They gave me $1,100 to fix it. That's what
I'm saying. People are not coping. I think at this point, they're just so angry.
You know, I'm over it at this point. The anger doesn't do me any good. None of
it's gonna do me any good. I just have to move on, and then once I'm done, I can
deal with what I need to deal with to prevent it for the next time. Within the
county, I mean, within the county and within the city. I can go to them about
the creeks and I can fight all that stuff. But right now, I'm going to get back
into a livable situation. My house is not [unclear] yet. You can see, there's
00:26:00still cracks on these floors from the lifts. Everything's pulled apart, so I've
gotta get insulation in there. I've gotta close everything. The crawl space is
still open down there. There's no door on it. I've got stuff to do. As you can
see, you saw the steps as we came up, the temporary steps. I can't get through
the winter with those. So, people are not coping. I think people are just,
still, ten months later, still trying to resolve the issues. They're angry, and
they think the anger has to go to go, but it can't, because they're not getting
what they need. [unclear]
[Ambient noise, laughter]
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: How was the response of the police during the time?
CHERYL MARA: Amazing. They were amazing. The police, the first aid, the fire,
00:27:00from both Keyport, Union Beach, Hazlet. I mean, we had police up here from
Idaho. Everybody was absolutely amazing. We had the National Guard up here, down
at the oceanfront, four blocks in. Wouldn't let anyone near it. They were
absolutely amazing, I have to say. In all my darkness, all the time I was here,
I sent my daughter to her father's house, my ex-husband's house with one of the
dogs. She left me two dogs here, which I didn't want. I kept saying, "get rid of
these dogs, I don't have time. I can't take care of these dogs, I got enough to
do." But once the house settled down at night and the pitch darkness came and
you're hearing these stories of people coming in and robbing homes, I was so
happy to have them. No one came hear this house. No one. Not with the dogs. So,
fortunately, they were in their crates. They've lived in these crates. As you
can see, they're not here anymore, but they were living in these crates just
because it wasn't safe. And I had open floors. Literally, you could see the
00:28:00crawl space. So, they were amazing. You called them for anything, they were
right there. And when you walked into town hall, nobody was short with you.
"What can I do for you? How can I help you?" They were right here. They passed
here every day. I'd get a hello, they'd wave to me, check in on me. I can't say
enough about them. Fire departments opened up. They had the big clothing and
whatever stuff they had donated, opened up at Union Beach in the firehouse
there. You walked in there. I mean, they had volunteers, the firemen themselves,
everybody. It was amazing, absolutely amazing what they were able to do, and how
calm they stayed. You know, when you think about it, at that point, having
everybody at me, I think eventually your nerves are gonna get worn. No snapping,
no nothing, just "how can I help you today?" So, they were amazing. I can't say
00:29:00enough about them. Even the ones from Idaho.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Can you tell me about the aid that you received on both the
governmental and the community level?
CHERYL MARA: The community level, we got- a few charity organizations came
through, and I didn't take as much advantage of those. Like I said, there were
others that were less fortunate than I, so we needed to know that those people
were going to get what they needed, and if I took it, they couldn't have it. So
I really tried to stay away. But when they did the gift certificates or when
they did the bigger stuff, that everyone was entitled to, including them, then I
would definitely take part. And they were amazing. The Tzu Chi Foundation came
in here, gave everybody lots of gift cards and certain dollars worth of gift cards.
00:30:00
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: What kind of foundation?
CHERYL MARA: It's called Tzu Chi. T-Z-U-C-H-I.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Okay.
CHERYL MARA: Yep. And they came in here, amazing group of people over at the
school. Blankets and stuff in a goody bag for us, flashlights, plus that, and
they gave us a video, and they showed us the video of what they do and how they
help out all over the country. So, it was a nice way for them to do it, and as
soon as I can give back, I would love to be able to help out all these
foundations who helped out. The church, I just got it hanging on my door over
there. Another church came in here and handed me another gift card, a $100 gift
card towards Home Depot, just Saturday, I think it was, I got that. Yeah, out of
the blue, just knocked on the door. It was a pleasant surprise. And that was a
Trinity Church in the area. So, churches came in and all that. They were doing
hot foods and all that. As far as the government, they handled the garbage,
00:31:00which was great, in the area. But obviously, when you reach-- they're
responsible, in the need, for that. But I didn't get any help from them as far
as FEMA or whatever. They said I had insurance and it wasn't qualified for their
help. So, I didn't get any of that. I did get- my firm, Morgan Stanley, gave us
a grant, which was nice, for clothing, to help us out. So, we were able to get
that. And then we had- we've had a couple other grants that have been offered. I
haven't qualified for all of them but I'm waiting to hear on a few others, so
we'll see what happens. As far as the government's concerned, you know, they're
always slower to come through than the charities are, so the community outreach
was amazing. That was really good.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Okay. How did you contribute, if you did? Did you contribute?
CHERYL MARA: In the beginning, I have not contributed to anything because,
00:32:00obviously, my house was destroyed, and I literally gutted this out to the
floorboards, to the joists. So, for the first few months, I never even left my
house. I was just here, I'd go to work, and come back. And as far as
contributing now, I'm starting to now get back involved. I was supposed to
volunteer with Habitat the following weekend and never got to do it, obviously.
Finally getting back into the Carter Project. I'm getting out there where I can.
You know, I've helped out a few neighbors, who needed some rides here and there.
Done that throughout the whole storm. Obviously, my neighbors, they were coming
here to shower the whole time. So I've helped out, if you want to call it that,
in that respect. You know, but I was not in the position to do what I would love
to have done, which was to go to the other houses and just help them get done. I
00:33:00still hope- I'm hoping no one else is in need, but you never know. If they still
are, I will be there to help them out as well, you know, because I know what it
was like to go through this.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: So, how do you feel about, overall, all the aid that you did receive?
CHERYL MARA: My feeling is that overall, aid is fine. It was helpful. There was
people there, community, neighbors, churches, charitable groups were great. As
far as the government's concerned, like I said, I didn't see much from them.
It's hard to deal with them. They're not the friendliest people. They are
snippy. And yes, they've been through a lot, just like the rest of us have, but
this- they shouldn't have been as snippy as they were. They weren't quick to
come to your aid, although FEMA did come out quickly, but rejected me just as
00:34:00fast. So, that was bad. I think the aid- I think we've gotten a lot of aid in
here, gotten a lot of help. The problem was, I don't know that people knew about
it, how much of it was here. I still don't know a lot of it. I mean, there were
things going on around the holidays. I was finding out because a neighbor called
me up, "did you do this? Did you go pick up that? Did you see this?" "What are
you talking about?" [noise in background] --even in the community. If there
wasn't someone knocking, you didn't hear about it. And you know, not having
power here. To this day, there's still no cable, there's no TV, there's no radio
in the house.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Okay.
CHERYL MARA: Nothing, still ten months later. Facebook. That's what I have, on
my phone. I hated the iPhone, and I was so glad that I had it after the storm,
because that is the only place I could keep up. I could get online to go see the
news stories, and that's how I still see them, is through my iPhone.
00:35:00
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Okay. Do you think that New Jersey prepared adequately for
what was coming? Do you think they had enough dunes raised, enough dams and everything?
CHERYL MARA: No. Definitely not. I think that there's a lot of prevention that
they should have done, could have done. I know the towns didn't have the money
to do it. They raised taxes for every other thing. Not that I'm asking them to
raise taxes for these, but the money should have been there to help, because
some of this- I mean, if they had done what they were supposed to do with these
creeks, I wouldn't have had water in the house. Definitely in the crawl, I
think, but we wouldn't have had it in the house. But because of the beaver, they
weren't enclosing those creeks the way they were supposed to. And that beaver-
I'm sure that beaver didn't survive the storm. I can't imagine it did. And now,
our homes are gone, our homes are destroyed, because of stuff like that. So,
00:36:00they definitely did not take the precautions they need. Still, to this day, I
know they are. They're working on it. That I do know. And everything that was
supposed to happen is going to happen over the next five years, but that doesn't
protect us from now until then. So, now I think they need to do other things.
But again, all this hype about these storms that never come, you know, I don't
think they took it any more serious than the rest of us did, which is really sad.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Is there anything that they could have done differently?
CHERYL MARA: I don't know, because, like I said, I don't listen to- they haven't
done what they could. Without the funds, it's kind of hard to do it. They should
have done it. The creek should have been dealt with. The creek was never cleaned
out to begin with. There were things in that creek that shouldn't have been
there, which would have helped keep some of the water down, but not all of it,
00:37:00because once everything started floating, it was going no matter what. But in
the beginning of the storm, when the water started to rise, that could have
handled some of that. It wouldn't have been as bad as it was. Like I said, I
still think I would have had water in the crawl, because that water- we had
almost six feet of water out there, you know, which is basically almost the
height of this house right now, off the ground.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Right.
CHERYL MARA: So, it was a lot of water out there. So, you were gonna get hit,
but they could have definitely dome some things differently. Up at the
beachfront, they could have done something more than they did. There's very
little beach there to begin with. They could have definitely worked and done
something. They have these little inflatable- I forget exactly what they're
called. I've been doing a lot of research since the storm, obviously, but they
could have put them right along the boards, under the sand, and the minute the
water comes in, they inflate and push the water back, to help keep it back. It
00:38:00would have kept it back a little longer than it did. There's things they could
have done. Yes, that costs some money, but it's not a lot of upkeep. It's really
not. You know, there's different things they could have done, I think, that they
didn't do. And I just didn't do enough research on the town. Believe me, I'll be
doing it after, but I'll make my house livable first. And then I will be
bringing it to the town. And I'll be looking for change. You know, but right
now, I gotta live, and I can't live like this. Ten months of this- I can't make
stuff. You still don't eat in the house. You sleep here, you shower here, that's
about it. Everything else is just work, work, work, work, work. To this day, I'm
still at the diner, to eat. So, once that's done, I will be addressing those
issues with the township.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Okay. Do you think anyone, in particular, is to blame, or is
00:39:00it more just a freak occurrence?
CHERYL MARA: No, I don't think anyone's to blame, other than, like I said, them
not having the areas prepped properly. No one's to blame. This is a storm. You
can't control Mother Nature. She's gonna do what she wants. The only thing that
I don't like is that so much hype comes down from the news media.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: That's my next question.
CHERYL MARA: Yes, the news media is ridiculous in the way they present these
storms. Anything that sells, anything that's gonna make you turn on that TV to
watch them. And it's not proper. They shouldn't be doing it like this [unclear
-- ambient noise]. So, like I said, we all stayed. I mean, I don't know how the
guy next door who was sitting on the ground, how they didn't drown in their
house, because our water was so high. I mean, obviously they must have been on
the top floor, but it still doesn't matter. The house, it can't really stay
00:40:00standing. You know, he lost a lot of his foundation underneath the house. It was
washed away. But I think the media has gotta change the way they present these
storms, when the storms are coming. And they need to be real about it. None of
this nonsense about "oh, it's coming, it's coming," and you get nothing. And I
understand they're looking at different meteorology tools and utensils and
whatever you want to call them. But, you know a little more than you're giving,
and all you're doing is hyping it up, and then everyone else hypes it up, and
then people stop believing you, like we did. So many people did not believe the
storm was coming. Like I said, there were people trapped and jumping off their
roofs into the water because they're gonna be washed away. It shouldn't be like
that. If we knew the storm was coming the way it was coming, those people
wouldn't have been in their homes. I can't honestly say I would have left mine,
00:41:00because even the firemen and people who have been here for years said the same
thing, they would have never left their house. But I didn't take it seriously,
because the media hypes it up too much.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Do you think the media, after the storm, it was adequately
portrayed, or it was more so sensationalized?
CHERYL MARA: Unfortunately, I cannot answer that question, because I had none.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Right.
CHERYL MARA: That's alright. I had no media except for what was on Facebook, and
that's really simple posts. It wasn't more- you know, I mean, I had channel news
four on my phone, but I'm not getting those stories. I'm not seeing them.
They're just giving you headlines, you know, what's happening over in [unclear].
I wasn't getting the stories, so I wasn't even seeing them. I have no idea. I
would have people call me up and say, "oh my gosh, all these things I'm seeing
on Union Beach, are you okay?" I'm like, "what are you talking about?" You know,
00:42:00I have no idea what's happening. Union Beach finally made the map. People know
we're here, all thanks to Sandy. I would have liked it the other way.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Right. What do you think about Obama and Christie making
their appearance in the town?
CHERYL MARA: Obama doesn't bother me at all. He could have stayed the hell out
of here, because I don't think he's doing anything anyway. Just to show up here,
make it look good, that doesn't impress me. Get your hands out there and figure
out what's going on. Get these people working. You've done nothing. So, as far
as Obama's concerned, I have no consideration for him at all. But Christie, I
think, did a great job. He came in here. He's done a lot of things. I think he
handled it well. There's a lot to handle. Is he perfect? No, nobody's perfect,
but he handled it, and he cared, and he's been doing that all along, before the
storm and after. Obama didn't know Union Beach existed. Christie did.
00:43:00
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: How do you feel about the rest of the response that you got
from the country?
CHERYL MARA: They were amazing, everyone coming in here, sending the things that
they did and taking the time to care. The Facebook posts you were seeing, coming
from all over on different Facebook pages that they put up, all of the different
charitable pages that were put together. The support was nice to see. That's
where I got involved. That's where I saw it, was on Facebook pages, and it was
nice to see that, you know, you aren't there, you aren't alone. The country was
standing behind you and they knew what you were going through and they were all
willing to help, which is- remember when Katrina happened? And kind of remember
all that? Well, we were all working hard here to send stuff out there. It came
right back to you. You were not alone when that happened. You know, how we all
just- it's not "us," it's the country. Even overseas. You had people coming in
00:44:00from overseas bringing things. It was interesting.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Has the storm shaped your environmental views in any way?
CHERYL MARA: Oh yeah. Definitely gonna get more involved. I am definitely going
to get more involved to find out what's going on. Before, I was just too shy to
do it. Still too shy, but determined to find a way to conquer that shyness to
get what I need to know and to try to change whatever I can, that's gonna make
things better for us as a community and as a county.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Do you think that after everything, was there ever a moment
where you felt like, you couldn't deal with this or you didn't want to go
through this again, so you wanted to move?
CHERYL MARA: Never wanted to move. But I can tell you that I definitely have
gone through those moments of, "I can't do another thing. If I get another phone
call. If I get told that something else is wrong. If I walk in this house and
00:45:00find another leak, or nail out of place, I'm gonna lose it." I've had a lot of
those moments, but never pushed me to wanting to leave.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Okay. So, does it make you think a bit differently about the
climate and the environment in which we're living in?
CHERYL MARA: Well, it makes me realize that it's changing and that we're gonna
have to look to the future, because things we've never experienced before, we're
gonna start to see. Like, we're starting to see more tornado touchdowns. Things
are starting to happen. They're not going away, so as I'm rebuilding, I'm
thinking those things through. How do I change things, if god forbid, tornado's
coming through here, am I protected? What do I do? What's the town prepared to
do? Do we have any place to do, if we're not, obviously, able to get the house
secure enough to do what we need to do? Where do we go for that and know that
00:46:00the building's protected? So, yes, it definitely changed it, and it's definitely
something I'm thinking about a lot, and focusing on.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Okay. The question states, "have things returned to normal"?
CHERYL MARA: Obviously, my answer to that question is no. Not at all. Not even
close. But hopefully by year's end. I'm hoping by the holidays, at least the
inside will be normal and I can start to relax a little bit.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Do you think that things will ever return to how they were,
or this will becoming a new normal?
CHERYL MARA: That's kind of a hard question. I think it's going to be- I think
it has to become a new normal, because obviously everything here has changed. My
entire home has changed. It's up off the ground. It's no longer down. The way I
look at the storms, the way I look at different things going on is obviously
00:47:00going to be very different. Do you think I'm going to be leaving in another
storm like that? Hell yeah. I don't care that I'm secure. But the joke is the
next storm that comes through, like Irene, they're all coming here. They're
going to be partying at this house. I say, "yeah, I don't know about that." But
we'll see. Because I'm the only one on the block that went up. You know,
everyone else, like I said, was basement, besides the guy next door. It was just
too expensive, plus he's gotta turn his house. He's gotta get it off the street.
And the other lady down the block, they're taking her house down and will
rebuild it.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Okay. [Sighs] What are the changes that you face to your
daily life?
CHERYL MARA: Changes that I face to my daily life. There is no daily life. At
this point, its' really going to work and I come home and I either sand, I
paint, I put up a wall, I- whatever. Screw in screws somewhere. In fact, when
00:48:00we're done tonight, I'll be painting the bathroom, hopefully [unclear]. So,
daily life doesn't really exist right now. I still have, in my opinion, there is
no real life. It's just, you're going through a motion. And till this is done,
we're going to continue going through a motion.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Are you doing everything yourself or do you have a contractor?
CHERYL MARA: Yes.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: You don't have a contractor?
CHERYL MARA: No, because they- the money I received was not enough for them.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Oh.
CHERYL MARA: I called in three different ones and they all said the same thing.
So I am doing it myself. Thankfully, my brother's been over to help me. Yep.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Are you still making payments to your home?
CHERYL MARA: Oh sure. Absolutely.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: And when everything was out of sorts, were you still paying
for electric, gas, and water?
CHERYL MARA: Well, we didn't have no electric, just very minor electric. There
was very minor bills, so I paid that. Gas and water, absolutely. All my bills
00:49:00are getting paid.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Okay, you're still getting- you have to pay them.
CHERYL MARA: You still have to pay them. You just struggle. When you're eating
out instead of buying food, which is a lot more expensive, by the way, than
eating from the home, so you kind of cut your meals in half, you know, and you
do what you gotta do.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Okay. Can you tell me about the changes on the outlook of
the community, that you have?
CHERYL MARA: As far as local for Union Beach?
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Yes.
CHERYL MARA: At the moment, I don't even know, honestly, because I'm so focused
here. I haven't been out in the community to find out. Like I said, I do know
there's a lot of houses that were taken down and are not coming back up. I do
know that there are people who have left from their homes because there's
nothing they can do. Financially, they're losing money. They can't stay on top
of it and they can't repair it, so they can't live there. They can't afford to
00:50:00pay any rent or mortgage while they figure out how to fix their home. So, in
that respect, the community is not what it was. I know they've done a lot of
the- they've kept the normalcy. They did have a farmers presentation, which we
won, through some organization that was done. It was donated to us, which was
fabulous. I, unfortunately, did not get to attend that, because I was obviously
working here. They've pulled a lot of picnics together, pulled people up there
just to take a half hour out of your day, come have a burger with everybody.
They've done a lot of community that way, so the community's still coming
together, which is nice to see. And the help- you know, I kind of hope it stays
that way, because you got to meet people you would never met, because everyday,
we all do our thing. We don't go to meet our neighbors. But at these types of
events, you sit there, you share you stories, you know, going through
00:51:00everybody's hardships. You kind of become family that way. As far as the
community is concerned, I can't really comment on the change, other than that. I
can't really comment on what their plans are because I haven't focused on that.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Do you view the world differently now, because- after the
response that you've seen from a national level?
CHERYL MARA: No, I can't say, I mean, because I've always seen the world- when a
disaster strikes, everyone pitches in, and everyone's always willing to. You see
more good than bad. You're always gonna have the bad. I mean, you have the bad
here of people taking what was left of people's homes, and you see that, but you
know? That's minor, and it's not the majority in the country. It's not the
majority in the world. People are generally good and they want to help and they
want to give, and that's what they do. So no, I haven't really changed my opinion.
00:52:00
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Okay. Do you think that the storm impacted the presidential
election in any way?
CHERYL MARA: No, not really. I can't- like I said, Obama and I just not seeing eye-to-eye.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Was that prior to the storm or after?
CHERYL MARA: All along [laughs] All along.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: That's fine [laughs]. Do you think that the storm will have
an impact on the governor election?
CHERYL MARA: I think it will. I absolutely do. There's no doubt it can't,
because people are gonna be judging him based on what he did, how he performed,
not for his whole term but during the storm. And that's what people are focused
on, the people who love him, and you have those people who feel like [unclear]
from him. You know, you're gonna have both sides, always those stories, anyway,
but I think it's gonna be more emotionally heightened because it was an
emotional time, and unfortunately, it's the only thing that they really are
going to focus on. Nothing else but that.
00:53:00
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: What's a word of advice that you would give those in Moore,
Oklahoma after going through their devastation, and you living through it
yourself, what's a word of advice that you would offer?
CHERYL MARA: The word of advice I would offer is just to love and respect the
people around you, and keep them close. Don't be running your daily life without
knowing them. You just never know who you're missing out on. And all these
people who lost their lives. For them, it was horrible when it happened. There's
people today, in this neighborhood, that are going to say, "what, you're still
going through this? What do you mean?" You hear that story, and then you think,
"You live in this damn community, how do you not notice it?" because they
weren't affected. So, you're gonna have that, but I think if you stay close with
00:54:00the people around you, your neighbors, your friends, your family. Make your
neighbors your friends, you family. I think when times come up like this,
there's nothing you can do other than to be able to be there and support each
other, and just be willing to do it. Reach out. When someone needs you, reach
out. Check on somebody. That's really it. That's the best advice I can give anyone.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: What do you think the legacy or the central message of the
storm would be?
CHERYL MARA: The central message of the storm, well, that's a loaded question.
That could be so many things, depending on how you look at it. You know, if you
look at the preparedness of the storm, you obviously got to take every freakin'
story they give you on the media and take it and believe in it, even when it
doesn't happen. And the central message, emotionally, is obviously what I just
00:55:00said on the advice. Get out there and know the people. Don't be too busy to be
involved. Get into your community and know your community. So, essentially, I
think those are the two things that are gonna be- there's gonna be devastation
everywhere, and that's a given, but the other two, I think, are more important.
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Okay. Is there anything that I missed, that you wanted to
add, or anything that you want to share?
CHERYL MARA: I don't think so. I think I kind of got out what I needed to get
out. We don't need the whole- a whole story. We just have--
TRDUI-ANN LAWRENCE: Okay. Alright.
