"I mean, this beach is gone. I mean, there's none of this beach left," said Robin Cassidy. She was one of those taking a first look at the damage from the storms.
"It's horrible. The beach wasn't that big to begin with, but this storm, the two storms, have really torn it up. The dunes are all gone," said Jason Smith of Ventnor, N.J.
For several blocks north and south of New Haven Avenue the dunes have been shaved off, creating steep cliffs.
"It looks like, in some places, there were six to eight feet of sea wall where they pumped the dunes up that have just disappeared," said Matt Conlon of Ventnor.
A few staircases were covered in sand, but many more have been taped off to keep the public from using them. That's because the sand underneath the steps has literally been washed away.
"It's definitely dangerous. We don't want anyone falling, getting hurt, so that's why all this caution tape was put up, for safety," said John Conner of Ventnor Public Works.
On the boardwalk in Atlantic City, crews will need to replace railings and boards that were popped up by the pounding surf.
In West Atlantic City, Venice Avenue was living up to its name. It was one of several streets flooded after the storms punched through dunes on Bay Drive, spilling water into the neighborhood.
Traffic wasn't moving through here, but the fish were.
"I wish we'd build sea walls instead of sand dunes," said Jack Piper of Pleasantville, N.J.
"Sea walls stay around for a while. Sand dunes don't."
