SANDY | Damage to NJ Homes, by County

Source: Chart by CityEconomist based on FEMA data. Permission
granted to use this chart with attribution to CityEconomist.

Using aerial surveys, FEMA reports that 71,770 homes were damaged in New Jersey. The damage is classified as "Affected", "Minor", "Major" and "Destroyed".

Of the New Jersey homes that were "Affected" or worse, 40,001 homes – or 55.7 percent of them statewide – were in Ocean County, which above Atlantic County and below Monmouth County on New Jersey's Atlantic coast.

Although the eye of Sandy made landfall in Atlantic County below Atlantic City, it is not surprising that the brunt of the impact was felt in Ocean County. Hurricane Sandy was spinning counter-clockwise when it hit land.  

The damage to the two counties adjacent to Ocean County, Atlantic and Monmouth, was the same percentage of New Jersey homes - 14.1 percent. 

Cape May, to the south of Atlantic County, accounts for 10 percent of the damaged homes. These four counties account for 94 percent of the damaged homes.

(John Tepper Marlin is Chief Economist for the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice. This blog is personal and does not reflect the views of the NJISJ.)