close up of the leaves and location .. other than the corner of union and harrison.. might help ... lol

any plant that has green... has a chance to survive .. those with none are probably dead ...

but even if alive.. and trimmed down .. it isnt going to look like this again.. in a very long time ...

my guess is privet or box ....

is the green at the bottom new shoots or some other plant ...

ken

thanks for the responses. I'm in north NJ (at union and harrison). here's a close up...

Privet

Not entirely easy to ascertain, but it looks like Privet with a side dressing of ivy along the ground. OP-very often, though not always, such a hedge can be cut down to the ground, as the gentlemen above alluded to, and new growth, either already started, or spurred into growth by the heavy pruning, will rapidly regrow from the base. So I ask also-is there any life at the bases of these things? If there is, I'd urge you to cut the whole works down and let it re-sprout from the base. And it might not really take all that long for such regrowth to occur. Just depends on how much of a root system is left. given the unfortunate fact that the demise of top growth leads to root loss.

+oM

Some of them have new growth from the bottom. Others, no, I think they are totally dead. Maybe cut back those with the new growth and look to replace the dead ones?

That might work, although you'll then be dealing with uneven sizes, etc. Not undoable, but be aware of this caveat. Pruning could come to the rescue in that scenario.

+oM

Will this scenario be repeated every time the corner of Union and Harrison has a severe winter? Should you think about replacing the hedge with something hardier/better suited to your climate?