Bucks County fund-raiser rallies support for Sandy victims at Jersey Shore

There is no heat, gas, or running water in Brian Schuster's Long Beach Island summer house. Hurricane Sandy devastated his property, which sustained about $100,000 in structural damage. But he's going to rebuild and raise the house to comply with federal standards that Gov. Christie announced in January the state would adopt.

Just raising the house could cost $30,000. But the alternative would be much worse. Christie said homeowners who don't meet the Federal Emergency Management Agency's floodplain map standards in two years could pay flood-insurance premiums nearly 10 times what they pay now.

Schuster, 65, can afford the cost of rebuilding his home. But he knows others aren't so lucky. So on Sunday, he drove 90 miles from his North Jersey house to a fund-raiser in Newtown, Bucks County.

"Everyone wasn't as fortunate to start to rebuild," he said.

A couple of hundred people paid $25 each for a ticket to enjoy a buffet and drinks at La Stalla Restaurant. New Jersey Hometown Heroes, an advocacy group raising money for storm victims, collected the proceeds, which will go to Shore residents in need.

More than three months after Sandy slammed the region, displacing about 41,000 residents and affecting tens of thousands more, organizers held the "Bucks for Beaches" event to continue to "shine the light" on the Shore, organizer Sharon Joyce said.

Joyce, like many other Bucks County residents who attended the fund-raiser, vacations at the Shore, where she has a house.

"To see the devastation, it was a no-brainer to come out and support this," said Lisa Fioravanti, 50, whose brother owns a house at the Shore.

Joyce called for solidarity with Shore residents, asking restaurant patrons to say in unison with her, "I solemnly swear that, on this day, everyone's from New Jersey."

Shore supporters acknowledged one event won't change the fortunes of residents whose lives Sandy upended. But "the more events like this, the better," Schuster said.

"It keeps the tragedy in everybody's mind."