'If you stay, there is the possibility you will die,' Laura Lech recalls hearing from the loudspeakers.
Displaced from their Seaside Heights, N.J., home because of damage from Superstorm Sandy, Laura and Stan Lech stand with their sons, Logan, 10, left, and Anakin, 13, today in a room at the Grand Eastonian in Easton.
The family, displaced by the wrath of Superstorm Sandy on their Jersey Shore town, has been staying in the apartment since Sunday, thanks to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. By today, they've been told, they'll need to start looking elsewhere.
"This has become home," Laura Lech said Wednesday. "Well, until tomorrow. Then we'll see."
The Lechs first moved to Seaside Heights, nestled between the Atlantic Ocean and Barnegat Bay on a skinny island, as full-time residents in 2010 after spending most of their lives in and around the Lehigh Valley. The couple grew up in Hunterdon County and later settled in Easton.
Though they admit Easton has always held a special place in their hearts, their move to the famed shore destination two years ago was a dream come true. For Stan Lech, it was the summer retreat of his childhood.
"It was kind of like our dream to live at the beach," Laura Lech said.
Mandatory evacuation
As weather reports grew more ominous in the wee hours of the day before the storm struck Oct. 29, the Lechs prepared to abandon the island. If any doubts lingered in their minds, they were chased by mandatory evacuations that night.
"If you stay, there is the possibility you will die," Laura Lech recalled hearing from loudspeakers.
Those insisting on staying had to sign waivers, she remembers.
"That was one of the scariest things I'd ever heard," she said.
Petrified of the possibilities, her family loaded up a van and headed west to relatives in Holland Township, where both Laura and Stan Lech grew up.
"I said to the kids, 'You're going to go to grandma's for a couple days, take what's important to you,'" Laura Lech said.
The younger of her two sons, 10-year old Logan, brought along a stuffed animal. Anakin, 13, took his saxophone.
Admittedly flustered, Laura Lech brought 12 years of tax returns and legal documents.
"You're not really thinking," she said. "When you can't take everything with you, what would you take?"
Left powerless in Hunterdon County in the days following Sandy's initial impact, the Lechs didn't realize what had happened to their town until they ventured out midweek for a hot meal at a Frenchtown pizzeria.
Their hearts sank as they watched footage of Casino Pier, Seaside's signature amusement park, washed away into the ocean. Stan Lech said he lost it when he came across the image of the Music Express, a popular attraction on the pier, in shambles.
It had been a favorite of his father's before he died in January: another memory, Stan Lech said, swept out to sea.
"It was like our ride was gone," Stan Lech said.
Glimmer of help
As their stomachs turned while watching the footage, they overheard a nearby table poking fun at the town's expense and making references to MTV's "Jersey Shore," which is based there.
"Let's hope Snooki was there," quipped one onlooker, the Lechs recalled, prompting them to respond.
"Stop, that's our home," Laura Lech said she remembered feeling. "It's fine that it's a joke for you, but that's our home."
But just as they felt ridiculed in a time of crisis, they found out when they went to pay the bill that a separate table had overheard the discussion and covered their costs anonymously.
"It's a little thing to pay for a couple of pies but it was a huge thing at that moment," Laura Lech said.
The Lechs eventually made it to their home the following week. A murky mix of mud and ocean water had flooded their first floor and left a lingering stench. Their car parked outside when they had left was gone, nowhere to be seen.
The island remains closed off to those wishing to return and begin the rebuilding process, the Lechs said.
Unsure of their next destination, the Lechs remain divided on the notion of going back to Seaside Heights. While Laura wonders how many more superstorms the shore can take, Stan Lech is fervently in support of a return.
"It was always where my family went for vacation," said Stan Lech. "It's been such a part of my life, I need to be there to see it come back."