By Ian Bush

OCEAN COUNTY (CBS) - Residents of Long Beach Island are only just getting their first look at the damage and destruction caused by Hurricane Sandy. They were allowed back for a few hours on Monday and officials say they likely won’t be let back in until Saturday.

“The water heaters are gone, the plumbing, electric, A/C units are gone. We had a big refrigerator, completely gone,” said Mary. Her family’s summer home in Beach Haven was finished only in July.

“There was a mud room set up here with ended up in my neighbor’s three houses away. It’s pretty much destroyed at this level.”

Now, she looks through the gaping hole that exposes her oceanfront home’s missing first floor. Contractors are at work, shoring it up ahead of the mid-week Nor’easter.

Up the beach in Ship Bottom, Andy’s breathing a sigh of relief — and calls himself lucky:

“You can rebuild these beaches all you want, and every grain of sand you put out there wants to be in Cape May, and it will be in Cape May. Mother Nature doesn’t want a beach, it ain’t gonna be there.”