AFTER THE STORMSuperstorm Sandy wreaked havoc on the Eastern seaboard last year. In one New Jersey coastal area, a fleet of International® trucks has helped rebuild the shore.BY MIKE HAMMER PHOTOS BY ERIK RANK

When Superstorm Sandy made landfall on the beaches and boardwalks that had inspired songs, films and folklore from Atlantic City to Sandy Hook, it left behind the kind of devastation usually associated with a war zone. Signature New Jersey shorefront boardwalks were either shredded by the wind or swallowed up by the pounding surf. Hun-dreds of homes were destroyed. Cars were swept away and 100-foot trees were snapped like twigs and strewn across yards, roads and bridges, making emergency services and rescue efforts as perilous and daunting as the marauding storm itself. Local police and emergency responders were stretched to their limits with endless calls for evacuations, rescue and shelter operations.

Yet to 53 towns in the epicenter of this natural disas-ter, recovery wasn’t too far off. It was delivered by a fleet of heavy-duty trucks and equipment in service at the Monmouth County Department of Public Works and Engineering, headed by its director, John W. Tobia.

“Like with Hurricane Irene the year before and the Christmas blizzard in 2010, we were prepared for this storm and were able to facilitate a response immediately,” Tobia says. “That action was greatly aided by our fleet of 120 heavy-duty pieces of equipment and trucks, all of which performed above and beyond the call of duty exceptionally well.”

The fleet of DuraStars® and WorkStars® were deployed

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in a wide variety of critical capaci-ties during the storm. Tasks included road and highway clearance to pave the way for evacuation and emergency service vehicles; person-nel transfer to and from severely impacted areas for a variety of sup-port services; and fuel pumping and delivery to nursing homes, hospitals, shelters and other areas.

“Our job description went well be-yond just what I call traditional pub-lic works,” Tobia says. “We used our trucks to open up vital infrastruc-tures and support shelters, perform rescues and emergency service—in essence, saving lives.”

Tobia credits the dealer network for the way the trucks performed. “We operated the trucks in severe conditions with some of them running 24 hours a day for more than two weeks, and they provided reliable performance. We develop specifications for the trucks to operate at 110% efficiency and our dealers are always there to assist us. Anybody can sell an item, but it’s the product support and response that firms up a positive working relationship.”

The feeling is mutual. “We go to great lengths to under-stand our customer’s needs and make sure we deliver,” says Frank “Paco” De La Fuente from Mid-Atlantic Truck Centre Inc., one of the dealers who have sold trucks to Monmouth County. “We have given them variants of our products that are tailored specifically to the demands the county places on them, and I have to say, based on their

operational reliability, I think we’ve done a pretty good job.”

WorkStars were deployed with dump bodies and roll-offs and were in constant use throughout the storm and in the weeks afterward. “The trucks assigned to the Bridge Division were deployed to shut down and de-energize the drawbridges,” Tobia says. “Others were used to transport pumps to lower the water level at the high hazard dams, then we had more carrying materials to refortify the bridge embankments. Monmouth County has 980 bridges. We utilized other trucks to block off

roads that are known to be problem areas. We deployed refurbished older models with impact attenuators and electronic signs with caution and emergency evacuation messages to help protect and direct traffic.”

The remarkable response was all the more impressive given the fact that Monmouth and its many municipali-ties were at the mercy of giant tidal surges. “We had three surges during Sandy,” Tobia says. “This created extensive flooding, which intensified the storm, because you had three high-tide cycles come in and each one could not get out fully before the next surge arrived. There were waves as high as 32 feet reported at the end of Sandy Hook and storm surges as high as 13 feet.”

Meanwhile, as the storm raged inland, WorkStars, sup-ported with aerial buckets, were used to deploy men 75 feet in the air to saw trees in danger of falling on the roads,

“We used our trucks to open up vital infrastructures and support shelters—in essence, saving lives.”

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while others were used to plow fallen debris off the road and into piles to allow free access to police vehicles, fire trucks and ambulances responding to mounting emergency situations. “John Tobia and I were in a vehicle together that night,” says County Sheriff Shaun Golden. “We saw our employees pushing trees out of the way, from Union Beach to Belmar, with high-water vehicles and front-end loaders.” The Department of Public Works and Engineering personnel rescued more than 350 people that night.

Throughout the chaos, International trucks were counted on to provide fuel and support—not only for shelters, hos-pitals and rescue vehicles, but also to keep the heart beat-ing at the County Communications Command Post.

“In order to assist local police departments—some of which were without electricity—we were completely reliant on two mobile field communication units,” says Sheriff Golden. “They were staffed with a dispatcher 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and directed EMS and fire rescue operations. They made sure our 911 centers weren’t overloaded by the volume of demand during and after the storm. They came through with flying colors.”

And while the Monmouth County Public Works and Engineering team put its best foot forward during the storm, it was only the first inspiring step in the long road back to full recovery. In the months after Sandy’s fury, there remains a relentless effort

to make sure things are as back to normal as possible by Memorial Day and the summer beach season. Crews line the highways, still taking down damaged trees, rebuilding damaged bridges and replenishing beaches with the tons of sand that buried the shore-town streets.

WorkStar trucks are deployed up and down the shore-front to gather up sand that was washed onto the residen-tial streets from the beaches. They then transport the sand to be sifted clean before moving it back to the waterfront to replenish the shoreline. As of April, the beach com-munities of Spring Lake, Sea Girt, Bradley Beach, Avon and Belmar are all on track to have their boardwalks fully restored by Memorial Day.

“Throughout the county our infrastructure work is on the road to completion,” Tobia says. “Our tree trimming is 90%

complete. On our bridge repairs, we are approximately 85% complete. On the highways we are nearly 95% of the way done. Memorial Day is a very real goal for us.”

Driving down Monmouth’s beautiful winding roads to the fast-rebuilding shore towns, Tobia’s predictions seem more a reality that’s just around the corner than a distant wish on a blue horizon.

“A lot of good people have put in a lot of hours to get us here,” says Tobia. “And these trucks and equip-ment played no small role in helping us along the way.”

“We were completely reliant on two mobile field communication units. They came through with flying colors.”

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DEALING WITH DISASTERINTERNATIONAL TRUCKS PLAYED CRUCIAL ROLES IN THE SANDY CLEANUP.

HEAVY HAULERSA fleet of WorkStars delivered huge loads of sand to defend against further flooding of shorelines.

TREE LOPPERS DuraStars equipped with protective cages and hydraulic saws cleared the area of dangerous trees and debris.

MOBILE HEADQUARTERS Two DuraStars, staffed with emergency dispatchers, ran 24/7 to help coordinate response units.

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