Hurricane sandy produced some of the greatest destruction along the new jersey coast in communities situated along narrow strips of land between the beach and a coastal lagoon to the west. these communities were vulnerable because they were built on low-lying terrane of

The correct answer to fill in the blank would be:

“a barrier island”

Barrier islands are coastal landforms and a category of dune system that are remarkably even or lumpy areas of sand that was formed by wave and tidal actions that are parallel to the mainland coast. Due to this feature, there are no enough sand blockades to minimize the destruction by Hurricane Sandy.