SALON

Thursday, Dec 13, 2012 2:45 AM UTC

Sandy concert offers NJ respite as well as relief

By

Topics: From the Wires,

TOMS RIVER, N.J. (AP) — To the rest of the world, the “12-12-12″ concert was an all-star fundraiser for those affected by Superstorm Sandy.

In a hard-hit New Jersey shore community, it was a break from a changed, stressful world.

Judy Kessler, who lives in Howell, says she wasn’t hit hard by the late October storm though her home was damaged and her power was knocked out.

“I’m not hoping for anything other than a lot of feel-good feelings,” she said as she walked into one of 28 movie theaters in storm-affected areas simulcasting the concert from New York’s Madison Square Garden for free.

The crowd in the theater, a short drive from the Highway 9 that Bruce Springsteen mentions in “Born to Run,” cheered when Springsteen joined Jon Bon Jovi on stage and sang along with Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ on a Prayer.”

The people watching the show near some of the spots that sustained the most damage included some whose houses are uninhabitable and others who put up friends in the weeks following the storm.

Jerry Frasco, a mail carrier from Toms River, said he was in awe of a lineup that included many of his favorites from 40 years ago, including The Who, the Rolling Stones, Roger Waters and Bruce Springsteen.

“We didn’t want to go through a hurricane to have it,” he said.

Joe Montagna, a retiree from Brick, said his home was fine though he did put up friends of his son’s who didn’t fare well. He said music has a special healing power and he was impressed with musicians heeding the call.

“Musicians seem to be the ones everybody looks for when tragedies happen,” he said.

Not everyone on the shore was excited about the show, though, including the mayor of Toms River, which has sections on a barrier island and the mainland that were decimated.

Mayor Thomas Kelaher said he hoped that low-profile devastated communities such as his would benefit financially. He said he fears most donations are heading to places known by tourists, including New York City and nearby Seaside Heights, where a roller coaster was dumped into the Atlantic Ocean by the storm.

He said in his community 542 people had to be rescued from a mainland area where evacuations weren’t mandatory and public works crews and police used front-end loaders to pluck people from second-story windows.

“You go up and down the streets, it’ll just break your heart,” he said.

Organizers of the Sandy benefit say that 40 percent of the revenue will go to New Jersey and the rest will be sent to relief efforts in New York and Connecticut.

The powerful storm submerged parts of New York City and knocked out electricity for millions of people in several states. It destroyed or damaged 305,000 housing units in New York and is blamed for at least 125 deaths overall, including 104 in New York and New Jersey.

More By Geoff Mulvihill.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 0 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
Journalists file suit against Manning's trial secrecy: Plaintiffs including Glenn Greenwald and Julian Assange demand press, public access to trial and documents
146 points147 points | comment
vote
Report: Nearly a quarter of Americans struggle to afford food
125 points126 points | 12 comments
vote
Kaitlyn Hunt refuses plea offer, will go to court over high school relationship - The 18-year-old rejected a deal that would have labeled her a sex offender and placed her under house arrest
124 points125 points | 90 comments
vote
Kaitlyn Hunt refuses plea offer, will go to court over high school relationship - The 18-year-old rejected a deal that would have labeled her a sex offender and placed her under house arrest
111 points112 points | 32 comments
vote
Ted Cruz against the world - How the Junior Senator is igniting the GOP civil war
74 points75 points | 19 comments

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: Chekhov's story mirrors Russia's own

Recommendations