the amusement park is in ruins. the ride that gave generations of kids so many thrills, like crumpled and broken in the surf. little left here. this is sandy s legacy.aike crumpled and broken in the surf. little left here. this is sandy s legacyike crumpled and broken in the surf. little left here. this is sandy s legacike crumpled and broken in the surf. little left here. this is sandy s legacike crumpled and broken in the surf. little left here. this is sandy s legacaike crumpled and broken in the surf. little left here. this is sandy s legacyike crumpled and broken in the surf. little left here. this is sandy s legacke crumpled and broken in the surf. little left here. this is sandy s legace crumpled and broken in the surf. little left here. this is sandy s legac crumpled and broken in the surf. little left here. this is sandy s legacy. so many communities will never be the same after this terrible storm struck monday. it made landfall here near margate, new jersey, and as sandy mov
serving new york city are reopening, though, with limited service. the one not opening, la guardia was seen from above by abc s juju chang. it was part of a long helicopter tour she took yesterday. what s going on? it s closed! you have to go an alternate route. reporter: it took as much of the day navigating through streets made treacherous by sandy s fury. oh, my gosh, we just got hit by a wave. but we managed to rendezvous with a coast guard at a shuttered airport in new jersey. for a harrowing bird s-eye view of this wounded city. look at this neighborhood right here. oh, man.
forced to wait out the blizzard when a major highway from maryland to west virginia was shut down for nearly 50 miles. when we caught up with kevin, he had been stranded for 15 hours. been here since what, 8:00. reporter: in maryland, road crews struggled to open the roads. chain saw. reporter: it took mark wells five hours to hack through 50 to 60 trees jet to get to work. it was pretty treacherous. the trees were falling behind me as fast as i was cutting them out in front of me. reporter: wells has had no sleep, and there s more roads to clear. the problem isn t just the depths of the snow it is deep but it s the weight. this is a very heavy, wet snow. you can see the branches of the trees. they just can t stand up to it. all of those falling trees brought down power lines. like almost everyone here, the myers have no electricity. i ve seen a lot of snow up here, but not from the hurricane.
where are you supposed to go? reporter: meet marie cook and her daughter lauren. my car has eight inches of water in it. my heater went. my washer and dryer went. air conditioning condenser went. it came in and went into my den. reporter: trying to dry out and prepping for a possible week without power. you ll live through it. believe me, honey. you ll live through it. reporter: the cooks weren t the only ones who stayed. we took a ride with the national guard. followed firefighters checking on people door to door. fire department! reporter: both groups running rescue missions all day. and from some who had to run the dicey rescues, a suggestion. i hope it s a lesson for everyone who stayed. next time, evacuate. reporter: so all of that destruction, here you can see parts of the historic atlantic city boardwalk. look at these enormous chunks of wood. they re snapped in half. some of them splintered. nails everywhere. ropes wrapped around. pretty unbelievable to think
picking up stranded families. do you want to come out? what? reporter: the boats bringing people to where they could be trucked to safety. whole families, huddling together in the backs of trucks. the entire first floor gone. we were able to go up on the second floor, which was us. the water is almost gone. we have a baby. baby, baby. reporter: the frantic rescue operation began after sandy s storm surge swamped new jersey. it happened so fast. within 15 minutes we had ten feet of water. reporter: stunned residents like vincent grabbed whatever they could as the waters rose. there s nothing there no more. nothing. you can t salvage anything. reporter: new jersey took the brunt of sandy s wrath, the coast especially hit hard. these images from the town of seaside heights. neighborhoods consumed by sand and water.