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Source: Asbury Park Press, N.mini storageJ.Oct. 28--Before superstorm Sandy: the McMullins at least once in a while could spring for dinners at restaurants. After Sandy: they eat at home all the time.Before the storm, they were expanding, hiring and adding a frozen yogurt shop to their ice cream franchise. Now they are selling assets and doing most of the work themselves."It's an expense that you don't need when you just emptied all your savings to rebuild," said Brian McMullin, who owns Gracie and the Dudes ice cream in Sea Bright and West Long Branch with his wife, Michelle. They have spent the past year rebuilding the devastated Sea Bright store.A year after superstorm Sandy, the Jersey Shore's economy is a mixed bag. The tourism industry that teemed with customers before Sandy spent most of the year picking up the pieces. Construction companies that were dormant before Sandy stirred to life.Taken together, the Shore was left with a bit more economic activity than otherwise would have been the case. Employment in the construction sector, for example, has grown at about twice the pace of the overall -- sluggish -- labor market. But for residents and merchants in the hardest-hit areas, the recovery is going to take longer than they may have expected, economists said."Sandy was a short-run disturbance for most of the state," said Patrick J. O'Keefe, director of economic research at CohnReznick, a New York-based accounting firm. "It interfered with our ability to get to work a couple of days....But in those 10 or so municipalities where Sandy really just worked its horror, those towns are still devastated. It wasn't merely a disturbance. It was a fundamental disruption in their communities."Sandy last fall caused $29.5 billion in direct damage to homes, businesses, roads and bridges and indirect damage from a slowdown in economic activity, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York said, citing the Christie Administration.To help with the cleanup, New Jersey and New York are sharing the bulk of $60 billion in disaster relief from Congress and $20 billion from private insurance, the New York Fed said.It is something of a lifeline for workers who are assisting in rebuilding -- construction workers, architects, engineers, for example. Struggling in the downturn after the housing bubble's collapse in 2008, they have been waiting for work for a long time.Vincent Simonelli, president of Lacey-based Dream Homes Ltd., said his company was reduced to bare-bones before the storm. It has since hired five employees, who are rebuilding 11 homes, he said.It is far from a windfall. Simonelli's company is partnering with contractors who were approved to parti迷你倉ipate in the government's $600 million Rehabilitation, Reconstruction, Elevation and Mitigation program that provides home owners grants. It is supposed to fill the gap between what they have received from insurance and loans and what they need to rebuild.But at least some of the home owners' applications have been denied, Simonelli said.Simonelli, however, thinks his workload will double in the next three to six months and then double again a year from now."If you're capable of doing the work, there's a lot of business out there," he said. "It's a question of people still not knowing if they're getting money."There appear to be better ways to jump-start an economy than wait for a natural disaster. Employment in New Jersey rose just 1.7 percent from August 2012 to August 2013, according to state statistics.Why not more? Economists at the New York Fed noted that Government aid and insurance payments sound like a lot of money, but they make up only 6 percent of the New York metropolitan region's $1.3 trillion economy. And government aid will be spread over three years.It leaves a largely glum picture. The McMullins, owners of Gracie and the Dudes, were riding high. Their Sea Bright store was so busy, they decided to expand, opening a store in West Long Branch and a frozen yogurt shop in Middletown.Sandy devastated the two-and-a-half story Sea Bright building they own, causing an estimated $500,000 in damage. Water rolled into the ground floor, leaving water marks more than 6-feet high. Wind blew shingles off, allowing water into the higher floors.Flood insurance only reimbursed them 30 cents on the dollar. And their property insurer, Lloyd's of London, denied their claim for wind damage, Brian McMullin said. They retained a lawyer to fight Lloyd's decision.To get back on their feet, they closed the yogurt shop and sold the assets. They dipped into their children's college savings plan. They sold two antique trucks, including a 1959 Chevrolet pick-up his father bought for him almost 30 years ago. And they are focusing on the two stores.Not that there isn't reason for hope. The Sea Bright shop re-opened at the end of the summer, fortified with concrete floors, reinforced steel and windows thick enough to withstand 120 mile-per-hour winds. And the customers there seem happy to have them back."I was almost in the driver's seat," Brian McMullin said. "Now I'm all the way at the back of the bus, beginning over."___Michael L. Diamond; 732-643-4038; mdiamond@njpressmedia.comCopyright: ___ (c)2013 Asbury Park Press (Neptune, N.J.) Visit the Asbury Park Press (Neptune, N.J.) at .app.com Distributed by MCT Information Services文件倉