Months after Superstorm Sandy devastated shorelines on the East Coast, affected homeowners are still determining how to rebuild in a landscape of provisional FEMA regulations, delayed building permits and continued weather risks. During the anniversary month of Sandy, PBS’ Emmy® Award-winning home improvement series THIS OLD HOUSE® will premiere a special eight-episode series on October 3, 2013 focusing on three sets of homeowners rebuilding in Bay Head, Point Pleasant and Manasquan, New Jersey. Along with a multitude of side stories, THIS OLD HOUSE experts Norm Abram , Richard Trethewey , Roger Cook and host Kevin O’Connor will report on individual communities’ restoration efforts in the heart of New Jersey’s worst storm damage, and what the future holds for building along the coast.
“Our JERSEY SHORE special edition is not only timely but critical for those in need of insight for recovery,” says Michael Burton , executive producer for THIS OLD HOUSE television. “Just months after the devastation, THIS OLD HOUSE is arriving at the scene to offer 35 years of expertise in restoration and do our part to restore the Shore.”
THIS OLD HOUSE: JERSEY SHORE restoration projects will include an 1880s Shore Cottage in Bay Head, a 1950s Colonial inPoint Pleasant, and a prefabricated new house in Manasquan. Side stories will also feature Mantoloking, Long Beach Island,Ocean Grove and other local rebuilding projects along the beach and the bay.
“I was born and raised in New Jersey,” says host Kevin O’Connor. “So this one hits home for me. The locals here can’t imagine aNew Jersey without a vibrant Shore, so it is not a matter of ‘if’ they will rebuild but ‘how.’ We hope to highlight best practices that will resonate in other coastal communities around the country.”
Abram, Trethewey, Cook and O’Connor will take viewers to the wild frontier of mold remediation, breakaway walls, house raising, and state-of-the-art pile driving. They will consult environmental experts, government officials, engineers, local builders and determined homeowners from all walks of life, to present a realistic and heartfelt portrait of a region struggling to rebuild smarter, better, and stronger, one house at a time.
“Throughout the country, extreme weather is clearly on the rise,” says senior series producer, Deborah Hood . “And while you can’t hold back Mother Nature, you can design and build houses and communities in a way that helps to save lives when the next storm comes. We’ll follow the progress from the front lines as these special communities struggle to come back.”
Featuring eight brand-new episodes,
THIS OLD HOUSE: JERSEY SHORE
will premiere nationally on PBS on October 3, 2013(check
www.thisoldhouse.com/tvschedule or your local listings) at the start of the series’ 34
th national season. Viewers will be able to watch full new THIS OLD HOUSE episodes Sundays at 7 p.m. after each show premieres at
www.thisoldhouse.com/watchTOH.
In the months leading up to premiere, visitors to
www.thisoldhouse.com can access exclusive behind-the-scenes videos from the New Jersey projects and other locations along the shore. And, for the first time ever, host Kevin O’Connor will be blogging at
oldhousemyhouse.thisoldhouse.com. Special features, such as a photo gallery, project overviews, products and services information, and a webcam will be available on
www.thisoldhouse.com. Viewers can become fans of THIS OLD HOUSE on
Facebook or follow the show on
Twitter.
THIS OLD HOUSE is produced by THIS OLD HOUSE Productions, Inc., for THIS OLD HOUSE Ventures, Inc., and is presented on PBS by WGBH Boston. Vice President of Television Operations is Michael Burton . Senior series producer is Deborah Hood. Series creator is Russell Morash . THIS OLD HOUSE is the No. 1 multimedia home enthusiast brand, offering trusted information and expert advice through award-winning television, a highly regarded magazine and an information-driven Web site. THIS OLD HOUSE Ventures, Inc., is a business of Time Inc., which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Time Warner.
WGBH Boston is America’s preeminent public broadcasting producer—PBS’s leading source of content for television and the Web (prime-time, children’s, and lifestyle programs) and a major supplier of programs heard nationally on public radio and online. For more information, visit
www.wgbh.org.
DEVASTATED: God Bless the Jersey Shore
Mantoloking, NJ
It’s worse than I expected. I saw all the news reports about Super Storm Sandy on TV, of course, and talked with friends and family about their experiences. But that didn’t prepare me for what I’m seeing. Actually standing amid the ruin is an entirely different experience than seeing it on the news.
One of my first stops today is Mantoloking, N.J. a place considered by many to be “ground zero” for the storm. I walk along the coastline, with its pristine white Jersey sand and fresh tracks from the heavy equipment used to groom the beach. But right next to the perfect beaches of my childhood are huge piles of debris. No, wait — that’s wrong. The debris isn’t next to the beach, it ison top of it. There is no “land” here; it’s all beach. It’s all sand, broken up in places by asphalt or stones or wooden decks, but under that, it’s just more sand. And the piles aren’t debris – they are entire houses, or what’s left of them. You know it’s a house because, well, what else could it be? You can see the roof, the doors, the wires, and the furniture. But it’s all mixed up and tangled. It’s deeply unsettling.
Jersey pride is on display everywhere.
And it’s everywhere. House after house destroyed, piled up like yard waste after a spring cleanup. The houses that aren’t completely shredded are tilting or cracked, in some unnatural state. And they are all deserted, even the ones that appear intact. If they didn’t fall down or get washed away they took on water. They’re uninhabitable. Where are the people?
