(MCT) — WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama’s point man for Superstorm Sandy recovery said Wednesday that the administration is working to get the Jersey Shore open for business next summer and pledged to help the state rebuild better and stronger as they try to make sense of damage assessment figures.

“We want to ensure that homes that were lost are rebuilt, businesses are restored and communities are made whole,” Shaun Donovan, secretary of Housing and Urban Development, told U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., at an appropriations subcommittee hearing. “We want to build back stronger, smarter, safer and more resiliently — a 21st century response.”