I am a licensed land surveyor and I worked on several post-Sandy projects over the last few years preparing Elevation Certificates for damaged properties that were going to be rebuilt.
Immediately after Sandy, our professional association hosted a seminar with FEMA reps; specifically to discuss the early release of the new FEMA Advisory Base Flood Elevations (ABFE). The release was not scheduled for another year or so after that but they were trying to be prudent and issue their preliminary data for the imminent explosion of reconstructions. Since 2013 there have been multiple adjustments in the ABFE for New Jersey communities. A lot of the adjustments have only been to remove the V zone designation from some properties. A V zone indicates that the property is subject to the 1% chance annual flood and additional damage from wave action.
The first thing the FEMA reps told us was that Sandy did not attain the 1% annual chance elevations in most areas along the NJ coast. In areas that I worked in post-Sandy, houses that flooded and that were severely and permanently damaged were damaged by water that reached levels 2' lower than the published 1% levels.
It would take hours to fully document what I am saying but here is a quick technical article on the elevations attained around the Mantoloking Bridge washout. Most elevations were below the 1% levels.
http://www.nj.gov/dep/shoreprotection/docs/ibsp-barnegat-bay-storm-surge-elevations-during-sandy.pdf
