Six months after Superstorm Sandy slammed the Garden State, two-thirds of those in the hardest hit areas are back to normal.

Michael Loccisano, Getty Images
Michael Loccisano, Getty Images
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A new Monmouth University Asbury Park Press poll finds 67 percent of residents in the hardest hit areas say they are fully recovered - that's up from 57 percent in February and 53 percent in December.

"But there is still a group of residents, particularly in the hardest-hit areas, who just have seen no progress whatsoever," says the Director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute, Patrick Murray.

He says the survey finds 15 percent of residents in those hard-hit areas indicate they have only barely recovered, or not recovered at all.

The poll also finds 73 percent of New Jerseyans say they're satisfied with the State's recovery so far, while only 20 percent are dissatisfied, but in the hardest-hit areas, 52 percent are confident, and that's down from 64 percent just two months ago.

Murray points out the survey also finds most State residents are very supportive of pitching in and using state funds to help bail out everybody who was hurt, except for possibly the Shore homeowners.

"Our polling has shown they will help rebuild businesses, they will help restore amenities like boardwalks, they will help in terms of building dunes and other issues of storm resistance. But when we asked them about residents down the shore, we find a lot less support. Right now in our poll we find that 52 percent of New Jerseyans say they support using state tax dollars to help rebuild severely damaged private homes down the shore, and 44 percent are opposed."

The survey finds 27 percent of those opposed to helping out shore homeowners say they wouldn't help out any homeowner, because they believe it's not state government's responsibility to use taxpayer money to do that.

Another 15 percent say, specifically, that shore homeowners should not get state aid because they knew the risks that they were taking when they bought a home down the ocean.

In addition, the poll finds 18 percent of respondents believe insurance should take care of Sandy-related damages for shore residents, and if they didn't have enough insurance, then that's their problem - they should have bought more.

 

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