Dive Brief:

• Federal aid for homeowners who lost property to superstorm Sandy is limited to primary residences.
• Along the New Jersey shore were small second homes that working class families and retirees saved to be able to buy.
• Now, ineligible for the financial assistance and sometimes without enough from insurance, they cannot use their summer getaways, rebuild them or sometimes even afford to have them torn down, but their mortgage payments remain along with flood-insurance premiums.

Dive Insight:

One bitter irony is that flood insurance will cost more for those with second homes on or near the beaches, though rates are grandfathered for primary residences. Federal aid was intended for people made homeless by the storm, not people who lost vacation bungalows. They have been left, in a manner of speaking, between sand and a hard place.