Sandy's lessons lost: Jersey Shore rebuilds in sea's inevitable path

By Leslie Kaufman

At first, Sandy seemed to be the calamity that was finally big enough to rouse the country to the arrival of climate change's many risks. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, for example, spoke of "a wake-up call and lesson to be learned here."

In Toms River, Mayor Thomas Kelaher, a Republican, said he now accepts the evidence. "Sea level is rising," he said, "I am absolutely convinced." 

But even as the inevitability of rising seas and extreme storms settled in, a chasm opened between the actions necessary to deal with that knowledge and what would actually get done.  

As people in towns like Toms River rushed to rebuild, they did not retreat from the coast. Instead, at the waterfront, so much—houses, businesses and sand dunes—is coming back bigger, stronger and taller than ever before.

Toms River is being buffeted by powerful forces—emotional and psychological, economic and scientific, political and bureaucratic. They are propelling the area toward rebuilding in zones that may well be inundated with water by the end of the century.