One Year After Sandy, N.J. Towns Accelerate Dune Building

Harvey Cedars (population 344), a beach town perched on New Jersey's chain of barrier islands, managed to duck a head-on blow from Superstorm Sandy.  Local officials credit a dune built about five years ago for blocking the storm surge that Sandy sent smashing into the ribbon-thin island.

That dune is now at the center of a major shift that could strengthen local officials against oceanfront homeowners who refuse to surrender strips of their beach property to the federal government for a much more ambitious program of dune construction.

One Year After Sandy, N.J. Towns Accelerate Dune Building, Despite Holdouts