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In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, while most area residents scrambled for food and fuel and waited for power to come back, local filmmaker Adam Worth hit the streets to shoot footage of damage throughout Monmouth and Ocean counties.

After five days of shooting, he edited it into a poignant seven-minute movie that he posted online. Posted three days ago, the movie has already amassed more than 3,000 views.

Worth, who has worked as a television producer for 12 years and is also Porta’s resident DJ on Saturday nights, was reminded of the events of Sept. 11, 2001, when Hurricane Sandy hit. He was living with his parents in Wanamassa at that time.

“I was young when 9/11 happened, but I didn’t go out and film anything even though I wanted to be a filmmaker,” Worth [pictured at right] said. “I always regretted it.”

So when another historic event struck the area, Worth decided to take his camera on the road.

“I felt like I could contribute something,” he said.

He hit the streets three days after the storm, although his house in Asbury Park still didn’t have power and he had no idea what other towns looked like.

“I didn’t realize how serious the storm was [until] I left the house and tried to get gas and ice and saw the lanes and saw the tension,” he said.

He drove up and down the coast of Monmouth and Ocean counties and the more he saw, the more he wanted to film. He stopped and shot footage in Belmar [pictured above], Sea Bright, Red Bank, Deal, Asbury Park, Keansburg, Mantoloking, Brick, Point Pleasant, West Long Branch, Tinton Falls, and Spring Lake over the course of five days.

He figured out where to go through word of mouth. If he came across fellow media professionals, he asked them where he should go. He heard Shore Acres was the lowest-lying portion of Brick Township, so he went there to interview residents.

Several times, Worth felt the damage was so bad he shouldn’t interview people. In Shore Acres, he came across a man who was sitting on his porch looking out at his yard, which was full of what seemed like everything he owned.

“I’m thinking, ‘Oh, this poor guy. I kind of want to film him but the human part of me wanted to not bother this guy,'” Worth said. “But then he shouts at me, ‘Are you interested in some waterfront property?”

Worth found such positivity and lightheartedness inspiring during the days he spent collecting footage.

“There was a lot of joking from people throwing their stuff out,” he said. “You expect people to be a bawling, crying mess. It’s sad to see people crying but it’s so much more heavy to see them being strong. You don’t expect it. It’s admirable.”

One family in Point Pleasant Beach escaped tragedy when their daughter was rescued by a police officer after she was taken away by flood waters. They told Worth about the incident.

“Apparently, it was this incredible, miraculous rescue,” he said. “And then two days later she’s walking out of the house and you can tell she’s going out with her friends, going on a date, distracted and done up … She had just moved on. It was kind of a testament to strength.”

Worth sometimes had a hard time gaining entry to the more damaged towns, which were often blocked off by police. He usually found that if he kept going, eventually a police officer would acknowledge his press credentials and grant him access to a town.

He got in touch with Sea Bright mayor Dina Long through someone he met during another interview. Sea Bright received some of the heaviest damage from the storm.

“It was just through luck,” he said of getting in touch with Long. “I was schmoozing with the officials in the [Belmar] rec center and that’s how I got into Sea Bright.”

Worth was walking and talking with Sea Bright’s mayor when he realized he was keeping her from another media engagement.

“She’s like, ‘I have to go. NBC4 is waiting by the bridge for me to give an interview,'” Worth said. “I had scooped them. They were all fancy New York producers.”

Worth had a leg up due to having grown up in the Shore area, he said.

“I kind of just knew my way around, knew which blocks hit the ocean,” he said. “I know where all the town halls are and I know how to find a politician.”

One thing Worth found interesting during filming was the man selling bags of ice for $8 each. Some people in line took issue with his price and accused him of price-gouging, but he maintained that the ice cost more to make without electricity.

“The scene was tense,” Worth said. “In a movie it would be clearly defined good and evil, but that reminded me it’s not black and white. The guy was a father. Maybe it did cost that much [to make the ice].”

He also encountered a man selling generators who said he was scared for his life because of the amount of people waiting in line.

“It was like if one person dropped a glass bottle everyone would pull out their guns,” Worth said. “Everyone was on guard for the one person who’s going to be the criminal.”

Many of the people Worth encountered while shooting asked him if anyone would be donating money to them as a result of the video. Worth took their names and phone numbers just in case, and anyone wishing to donate can contact him at atom@gmail.com

Shooting and editing 20 hours of footage took a toll on Worth.

“It was way beyond making the video,” he said. “I’ll never forget it. It was deeply profound personally.”

To see Worth’s film, click here.

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