Jersey Shore ER nurse swam to work immediately after Hurricane Sandy

Toms River, NJ -- Marsha Hedgepeth, an emergency room technician at Toms River's Community Medical Center, walked out her front door and dove into the water in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. And then she swam to work.

A tributary of the town’s namesake river, Dillon’s Creek flows alongside Gilford Park. The creek rose during the storm and flooded Hedgepeth’s neighborhood. Police Chief Michael Mastronardy said the waterline reached over four feet in some areas of town, including Gilford Park.

In the precious light of the calm after the storm, she freestyle-stroked her way past the flotsam of Sandy’s rage: decks, a lifeguard box used for ropes, a bench with the Stewart’s Root Beer logo.

“I don’t know if it’s from Seaside or Fischer Boulevard,” she said.

A regular surfer, Hedgepeth cut her way inland through the sludgy water for what she calculated was just less than a half hour, until the water level was low enough for her to bring her 5-foot-4 frame upright, she said. Plastic bag in hand, she walked about two blocks to the highway and crossed over to the westbound side, she said.

And after that? She looked down Highway 37 and...hitchhiked the rest of the way in.

And you stayed home why?

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