Ocean City comes together to try to heal

Her hand on his shoulder, their heads nearly touching, Gail Lusk prayed earnestly with and for Alex Munro, a two-time loser in the Hurricane Sandy lottery of bad luck and near-misses.

Munro lives in Levittown, where he has no power, and owns another home on Simpson Avenue in Ocean City, N.J., that took on 14 inches of water.

Neither home is livable.

"The devastation is so great that we just offer a prayer," said Lusk, whose home in Mays Landing escaped unscathed.

Saturday was a day of prayer, perseverance, and powerful emotions in Ocean City as the sad reality and hard work of cleaning up, rebuilding, or, perhaps, moving on, settled in.

Mountains of trash bags grew on the street as homes were emptied of soggy sofas, stinking carpets, and warped dressers, all ruined by the water that moved from ocean to bay through the barrier-island town.

Lusk was one of dozens of volunteers who converged on the Ocean City Tabernacle in an event run by the Coastal Christian Church in Ocean City. Coastal suffered its own damage - its sanctuary, youth, and administration buildings were closed.

Even so, its members came early Saturday to unload a truck of relief supplies sent from the World Compassion Network, a Christian outreach group from Indiana. There were 500 plastic tubs, each the size of a breadbox, filled with ready-to-cook rice, beans, oil, salt, and sardines and 100-plus buckets packed with cleaning supplies. Mounds of children's clothing grew in a corner, along with pallets of bottled water and Gatorade, ready for distribution.

Besides people like Lusk, who volunteered to pray, the church also dispatched volunteer cleanup crews drawn to the Tabernacle by a Facebook posting.

When people came in for supplies, they could fill out a form asking for help.

Among those seeking a volunteer crew was Latasha Blackmon, who dropped in for supplies before going to her parents' home nearby.

In her family, 11 are now homeless. She and her four children lived in Pecks Beach Village, a public housing community - now condemned.

They are staying in a hotel, sent there by the city.

"I never thought this would happen to me - living in a hotel, with no place to go," said one of her children, Diavian Blackmon, 14.

Latasha Blackmon's parents, Shepherd Blackmon and Juanita Williams, both in their 80s; her sister LaTanya; and her niece are also homeless. The first floor of their Haven Street home is soaking wet and putrid-smelling. Her aunt and uncle's house was also destroyed.

The parents and niece will go to a hotel. The aunt and uncle can stay with their son. As of Saturday afternoon, her sister had no place to go.

Helping them clean out their house was one of the volunteers dispatched from the church.

"My life is a mess," said Todd Kane, 31.

He and his fiancé - the mother of his 7-month-old son - had split up, and Sandy destroyed their apartment in Belmar.

Kane is living sofa-to-sofa. But, because he was volunteering, he may have a lead on work that could help him rebuild his life - a construction job working in flood cleanup.

"I've nowhere to turn but to God," he said.

On Asbury Avenue, it's hard to find any advantage in cleaning out a stinking muck of a business, with more than $100,000 in equipment destroyed.

But at least while she cleaned her shop, Yes! Nails & Spa, Saumei "Amanda" Chan, 38, didn't have to think about her house in Atlantic City, also unlivable due to Sandy.

She could focus on the immediate and not think about how everything she had worked for was gone, or what to do about the future.

"I don't want to think today," she said, her voice only barely in control. "I just need to clean."

Across the street, Jon and Patty's Coffee Bar & Bistro was doing a brisk business, packed with people who had come to Ocean City to check on their homes.

As the hurricane loomed, Jon Talese and his staff moved tables and kitchen equipment to a nearby storage facility, renting a top-floor spot.

The water rose about two feet inside the cafe. "It was like a fishbowl in here," Talese said.

Because the floor is slightly pitched, when the water receded to the bay, most of it drained out. They cleaned for a day and opened in the morning.

Talese owns two other businesses - his real moneymakers - in Atlantic City. One, ACHotelExperts.com, books hotels; the other, ACTicketGuys.com, is an online ticket-seller.

A dozen people are out work, their office has no power, and Sandy wrecked some of the wiring.

"People aren't buying entertainment now," Talese said. "They are on damage control, trying to find gas."

Just down the block, the Donna Gay Dillon Boutique was open for business with a sidewalk rack of "Flood Pants" on sale for $39 each, down from $170, $130, $87.

Owner Gay Donovan managed to move most of the merchandise to higher racks, but not all the plants.

"All you have to do is wash them," she said, "and they'll be as good as new."