the rockaway times, sandy anniversary edition: oct. 29, 2014

B2 October 29, 2014Remembering Sandy — The Rockaway Times

As we approach the two year anniversary of Hurricane Sandy

We are still here!

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Remembering Sandy — The Rockaway TimesOctober 29, 2014 B3

Some people are tired of Sandy, they’ve had enough. Some remain its grip. Even for those who benefitted in the aftermath of Sandy, they know others who’ve suffered and con-tinue to. There are no victory laps when people die and neighbors lose so much. Still, we mark the day. We remember the storm That Changed Everything. For this edition, we invited the community to sub-mit photographs and asked some talented writers to contribute. We are grateful and believe the con-tributions make this a special edition, indeed.

-Kevin Boyle

IIt’s a mix. A mix of good and bad. Renewal and stagnation. Some are better off; some will never recover.

Photo by Peter Brady

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By Bob Hardt

I wonder if I’ll stay if the water comes back. I wonder when they’ll bring back the boardwalk, the peninsula’s long and fragile spine that runs down our beach, connecting our odd little neighborhoods. I wonder if I should be glad or mad when my house shakes from a pile driver, slowly laying the foundation of a project that will be finished someday. I wonder if children remember the library on my block that’s still closed - and if they’re used to borrow-ing books from a trailer. I wonder about those emergency cans of storm food, still sitting in my kitchen cupboard. I wonder if for the rest of my life, I’ll be getting a little nervous when October arrives, waiting to hear if some obscure storm in the Caribbean has finally been grant-ed a name by a bunch of weathermen in an office. I wonder if people on the mainland quietly think we all deserve this, like a scantily-dressed woman getting wolf-whistled at a construction site. I wonder if I’ll always take perverse joy in throwing things out - re-enacting a collective massive post-hurricane purge. I wonder why they’re taking our ferry away. I wonder about whether we tell the storm stories to strangers out of fear or pride. I wonder why some people think it’s hip to hate on the Hipsters, who are only here because they love this place as much as we do. I wonder if the Red Cross knows it screwed up. I wonder where that geodesic dome went, that weird museum-discotheque that somehow brought a lot of us together. I wonder if my Sanitation men know I think they’re heroes and get choked up seeing them march down the boulevard in honor of Saint Patrick.

I wonder when that new store on the corner is going to open - and whether that old restaurant is ever coming back. I wonder if those two big trees in my yard were poisoned by the ocean and are slowly dying. I wonder if my neighbors hate the remaining shard of my backyard fence, a monument to the storm’s muscle that made it crack like quick thunder. I wonder if things here are actually better than they were before the storm - and then feel guilty. I wonder when the Build It Back people will come inspect my house - or if they’ll find another form for me to fill out like an Eastern European functionary. I wonder what would have happened had Sandy been a little bit stronger. I wonder what would have happened had Sandy been a little bit weaker. I wonder if I’ll ever stop smiling whenever I see a Sikh and think of how they were the first people to bring hot food to everyone on Tuesday morning. I wonder if the supersized beach and its newfound beer belly of sand would have stopped the storm or just been washed away like the Maginot Line. I wonder if we complain too much - or not enough. I wonder how many wild cats washed away - and where all the new ones came from. I wonder if the storm whipped me into shape. I wonder what flood insurance will cost in a few years. I wonder if everyone knows how beautiful it is here, this odd and bent corner on the edge of the city’s frontier. I wonder if I’ll stay if the water comes back.(Bob Hardt lives in Rockaway Beach and is the political director for NY1)


Since 1904, Waldbaum’s has always been more than a store. We’ve been a friend, a neighbor, and a part of the community. For the past hundred years we’ve been dedicated to the Rockaway community and will be for the next hundred.

ROCKAWAY IS COMING BACK STRONG!

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Crumbling foundations and empty sandlots dot the landscape in Breezy Point as the homeowners still haggle with insurance companies and city agencies two years after the storm. Every night, as I make my way home from work, I turn from the sand lane running parallel to the Atlantic Ocean onto the end of Essex Walk where an empty section of sand awaits. One day I’ll find my spot is taken by construction equipment, pre-positioned for the long awaited rebuilding of the seven homes missing from my block, but I fear it will be a long time before that day. Another summer will come and go without any progress, and my truck will still be parked where my neighbor’s living room used to be. It breaks my heart. Not a day goes by that I don’t anguish over how different my life, and the lives of those around me, is since Sandy struck. A friend once told me, “If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.” Truer words have never been spoken. Two years ago, days before the storm, I thought I had it all figured out. I had a good job, a good home, living in a great community, and someone to share it all with. A week later my plans for the future, and those of many others around me, were burned, battered, and swept out to sea. I lay awake at night, staring at a crack in my ceiling from that fateful night when hurricane winds threatened to topple my home, and

wonder what could have been if Sandy was just another Irene. Not a day goes by that I don’t take time to appreciate and be thankful for all the hard work and sacrifices made to save my community. Police officers, firefight-ers (both professional and volunteer), and other first responders not only saved hundreds of lives across the Rockaway peninsula that night, but gladly donated their time and resources to help us for months after. Volunteers from as far away as California, Texas, and Louisiana, descended upon the Rockaways to lend a hand. A dozen from New Orleans, many of them first responders still reeling from Katrina years before, lent us their expertise. They stayed at the Point Breeze Volunteer Department, laughing and crying alongside us as we shared the details of our ordeal and listened to their own. We could empathize with one another; because not a day goes by that they don’t feel the same way too. Not a day goes by that I don’t look upon all we have accomplished over the last two years and feel my heart swell with pride and admiration. We have persevered, and every new day is another step forward. Homes are being rebuilt, local businesses are reopening, and our neighbors are rejoining us in our paradise by the sea. We rallied together the night of the storm, the recovery afterwards, and the rebuild-

NBy Sebastian Danese

Not a day goes by during which I can avoid the scars left behind by Hurricane Sandy. Half of the houses on my block are missing.

ing which will continue for years to come. The story of Breezy Point and the Rockaways are an example to others the way volunteers from Katrina were an example to us. I’ve been invited to speak all over the country to share the lessons we learned. We have become an example of how to survive and man-

age a disaster the right way. What we have accomplished will be a beacon of hope and guidance for others who must face their own crucible, and not a day will go by where they won’t be thankful.(Sebastian Danese is the author of the book Battle For Breezy Point)

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Ironically, in the absence of our good fences, we became better neighbors in the truer sense of the word. Before Sandy, our fences were like security guards, keeping our neighbors at a distance. They did the dirty work through implication. “This is how far you can go—you stay on your side; I’ll stay on mine”. The higher they were, the better we liked them. Like the mythological Phoenix, Rockaway has risen from the ashes. Survivors of the storm, we are mended and rebuilt. Brand new fences stand again as formidable barri-ers between neighbors, and I’m afraid we’ve forgotten what Rockaway was like without them. But, I haven’t forgotten, and the mem-ory conjures up the kind of feeling Charles Dickens described when he wrote, “It was the best of times. It was the worst of times”. In light of all the suffering, I hesitate in saying

anything good about Sandy. But, you must admit that she didn’t play favorites. Sandy was a democratic destroyer— a great equal-izer. Grand houses fell as easily as modest ones. Victims of the same storm, we stood behind our shattered fences equally vulner-able and just as frightened, in the face of disaster. In our misery, we needed company. Open doors replaced high fences. We were in and out of each other’s homes to share prob-lems, information and resources, or just to chat as neighbors do. A spirit of interdepen-dence grew among folks who otherwise might never have been friends. A communal need unified Rockaway—the need to sur-vive—together! And, so, the terrible days of Sandy were also some of the best of times. Sandy knocked down more than our fences. Our guard was down. We wanted our neighbors near, and

TThe guy who said that good fences make good neigh-bors would have been surprised by the turn of events in Rockaway after Sandy literally washed away our fences.

anyone who came close became our neighbor. My block, Beach 139th Street, was a won-derful microcosm of a town without fenc-es. Transformed by a spirit of camaraderie, my neighbors became friends who cared about each other like family. Images of destruction have been blurred and diluted by time, but pictures of my neighbors still dance vividly before me as I recall the first days of Sandy: I’m standing on what used to be my front lawn, weeping and freezing in the bitter cold, and along comes Neighbor Cathy with break-fast sandwiches and a blue, porcelain pitcher of steaming-hot coffee. Her husband, Jim, joins us with his sense of humor and helping-hand, that are just as invigorating as Cathy’s coffee. I can still see Neighbor Joe, at my side window, who’s left his own flooded house, to help me pump out my basement. Neighbors Al and Bob, in rubber-boots to the knees, man a fire-fighter’s hose, connect it to the street hydrant and spend hours washing the debris

from every house on the block. Al’s dog Lucy licks my hand and I bury my face in her warm, white fur and thank God for Cathy, Jim, Bob, Al, and Joe. Thus, Sandy was the worst of times and the best of times. And a sense of nostalgia lingers for those days when a great group of neigh-bors made me forget about a town that once had too many fences. Joan Diehl is an award-winning, New York City Teacher of the Year, who has dedicated herself to the students of P.S./M.S. 114 since 1980’s, and currently runs the after-school program, The Writer’s Club.

By Joan Tuzzoli Diehl


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That truth is becoming even more stark in the post-Sandy era, as we hear prediction after prediction of how climate change will bring more big surges and storms to our doorsteps in the coming decades. But with risk, we reap our own peculiar rewards in life. Besides, it’s impossible to accurately predict exactly what the effects of climate change will really be right here, or even in places inland, thousands of miles from here. So we choose to look out over the ocean every morning and stay. This is still our only home. I did not grow up by the sea. But I come from a family of people who grew up around water and it became clear from a young age that we were water people. Both sides of my family come from New Bedford and just near the Cape in Massachusetts. I grew up visiting my family every summer and cold

New England Christmas, where close ties to the water were everywhere. These were not risk-averse people. My father was one of eleven children, raised in the tenement houses of New Bedford. His father was the purveyor of a shoe repair shop that sup-ported the entire family. (Every Friday new-comers could expect a feast of corn on the cob for dinner, only to realize half way through the meal that they had just missed the main course as they were politely nib-bling on a single ear and waiting for the next course to come out). After the storm, my late father’s family, all ten of his siblings and a number of my first cous-ins did what good Catholics do. They got together to help, because they knew I need-ed it. We do this in our family, when someone is struggling. I went up to visit a few months

By Jen Poyant

after the storm and one of my uncles handed me a fat envelope of cash that they had col-lected on my and my husband’s behalf. They said it wasn’t much, but it was a lot. It helped pay for a good portion of the deductible on our flood insurance. Thousands of dollars just handed over to me. I felt a twinge of embar-rassment for being in this position of taking my family’s help. They could feel my hesita-tion. As I started to cry, they encircled me in a group hug that I’ll never forget. Since I’ve been back up to Wareham, North Dartmouth and New Bedford, my family members ask me cheerfully, ‘how’s the

house?’ And I tell them the work is coming along. We have a new roof thanks to the insurance and with their help, we were able to replace the boiler, hot water heater, elec-trical and plumbing that was all destroyed in the storm. We are still working on making the basement a sensible, waterproof space for my husband to work on his sculpture, without it becoming a place that will just need another massive gutting during the next big storm. He’s working on a making it a big, relatively waterproof art studio, where water can come right in and then go. My

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TThose of us who choose to live along the coast in this day and age make a choice to take a big risk in life.


ROCKAWAY PROPERTIES POST SANDY REAL ESTATE TRANSACTIONS

2013 2014

$25,070,000

84

42

$52,050,000

HOMES SOLD

SALES REVENUE

Median SingleFamily HomesSold in 2013

$623,000

Median SingleFamily HomesSold in 2014

$776,000

The Rockaway Properties TeamThe Rockaway Properties Team As our Peninsula continues to recover and rebuild from Superstorm Sandy, we take a moment to reflect upon how far

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IIt’s all gone,” Beach 130th street resident Joe Napoli said when he was able to return to his home after Sandy did the unimaginable.

“As the surge rolled down their blocks on October 29, 2012, residents knew flooding was inevitable. They never thought fire could come into play. While thousands of homes felt the effects of the ocean and bay, more than 200 homes in Breezy Point and Rockaway burnt to the ground, leaving many families with nothing more than the clothes on their backs. Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, tower-ing houses have started to take over the empty lots that were left after Sandy. While the houses remain at different stages of the rebuilding process, those whose houses burned down share the common thread that they’ve all been through hell over the past two years. Their stories all begin on the eve-ning of October 29, 2012, but their experi-ences that night and since then have all been unique. Michele Woods, of Beach 130th Street, recalls the fire first starting by St. Francis de Sales on Beach 129th Street. Strong winds made the fire jump in a hopscotch pattern between Beach 129th and 131st Streets. When the Harbor Light restaurant caught fire on the corner, it was time to leave. “Once the Harbor Light went up, that was it,” Woods said. “My husband Tommy came in and said ‘we’re going.’” Tommy Woods, like many of his neighbors, is a firefighter, but there was no stopping the inferno that was ripping through the block and no outside help could

arrive. Woods had a better view of the fire and gave his neighbor, Napoli, the play-by-play before deciding it was time to leave. The Napoli’s had just moved into their home from Brooklyn four months before the storm and were still putting finishing touches on it in the days before Sandy. Before leaving, fire-fighter Napoli told his family to grab essential items, including their cats, which his children put into backpacks to transport them. The families would never see their home again. Jim DiBenedetto and his wife were helped by Michael McDonnell and lifeguard Dylan Smith. McDonnell created a rope made of cables to help his neighbors make it across the street and away from the fires. He tied it to a tree, but needed a way to get it across. “All of a sudden, Dylan comes with a surfboard,” DiBenedetto recalled. Smith brought the rope across and assisted his neighbors across the street by means of the board. “Dylan was great. I had never met him until that night,” DiBenedetto said. Smith, 23, died in a surfing accident in Puerto Rico, two months after the storm. DiBenedetto and the other residents of the burning houses braved dangerous debris in chin-deep water, while feeling the effects of the fires. “There was this crazy, loud, roaring sound. I was walking down the block and I remember the embers hitting my body. I kept screaming at my brother, telling him to make sure my hair wasn’t on fire,” Francesca Napoli

said. In Breezy Point, where so many houses burned, Mari Ellen Mack made a trek from Gotham Walk to Roxbury with her dog, Jeter, in her arms. All of the residents whose houses caught fire that night were able to make it to safety. Everyone survived. Their houses were another story. Jim Bunyan, a resident of Beach 129th street, was one of the few that followed orders to evacuate and spent the night in Brooklyn. That decision would turn out to be a good one as his house was the first to catch fire in Belle Harbor. He wasn’t able to see his home, or what was left of it, until two days after the storm. “I started getting pains in my chest and needed to be treated by paramedics. It was the worst day of our lives,” Bunyan said. The only thing left of Napoli’s house was a fireman stat-ue in front. “At first you were in shock. Then after the shock wore off, you realized that you had nothing,” Joe Napoli said. The residents had to start from scratch, which meant having to get something as simple as identification to be able to start rebuilding their lives. “Once the city sent the DMV to Breezy Point, we were able to get a drivers license, which was a huge thing,” Michele Woods said. The residents then began the long, grueling process of rebuilding a home. The Woods had to move to Forest Hills. The

Bunyans, DiBenedettos, Mari Ellen Mack and the Napolis were all relocated to Brooklyn. Being so far from Rockaway made the process even more difficult. On top of everything else that happened, the Napoli’s had moved into an apartment that they later discovered was infested with waterbugs. While many local families received little to no help from insurance companies due to the flood, those whose houses burned were covered by homeowners insurance. However trying to get the funds to rebuild was anything but easy. “It was hard dealing

with the insurance companies because you had to make a list of your contents. That was depressing, having to remember everything you had. I had lost rings, my grandmother’s pearls, a huge oak table from my family’s farm in Kansas,” Michele Woods said. “I was sad about those things that can’t be replaced, but at the same time, I was just happy everyone was alive.” Some families were able to obtain the funds


Battle BURNOUTSof theBy Katie McFadden


Contributors: Photos submitted by Peter Brady, Andy Lauro, Meghan Courtney, Kara Burke, Mala McNeil, Liz Speer, Annette Lauritsch, Rafal Motyka, Jules Verdone, Jim Supple, Gina Di Cecco, Matt McLean, Lily Corcoran, Terence Moriarty, Katie Mcfadden, John Cori, Cecil Brando, Bill Keating, Michelle Woods, Mari Ellen Mack, Mara Valentino, Matthew Troy, Barbara McLean, Michael Spudic, Edwin Wilmarth III, Ann Marie Geis, Kyle Murphy, Marc Fiorito, Rockawayist, Lou Pastina, Robert Kaskel, Ellen Urban, Donna Varisco.

The Weekly Local

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Times


Two years later, the struggle continues to rebuild our homes, businesses, schools, neighborhoods, and shores.

As in the past so, too, in the present and the future, Rockaway residents will overcome all obstacles and meet every challenge on the way to full recovery and greater resiliency.

CONGRESSMAN

GREGORY MEEKS

“

“


Never The Samekindly aunts and caring uncles smile and in their thick Massachusetts accents tell me how proud of me they are, for fixing up the place and continuing on with the hard work of life, on raising our three year old son and for me keeping up with my career through it all. What I don’t tell them, is that while the house is slowly coming along, the storm had a much more profound impact on my life than just damaging our home, neighbor-hood and community. I have kept hidden from most of them that my husband of five years and I are now separat-ed. I live down in the 120s, he stayed in the house with our beautiful son in the 60s of old Arverne. We are co-parenting our son in a sincere and loving way while we work on our healing process as a family. Let me be clear, the storm didn’t cause our separation. There were many contributing factors, waiting for some big event to help them rise to the surface. And boy, what a thing like a storm surge of truly epic proportions to do that. When Sandy hit, I had recently returned to work after a six month maternity leave and the pre-mature birth of our son. As most new, work-ing moms discover when they go back to work, (even to jobs they are dedicated to and passionate about like I was), I found to my profound disbelief, that I could not be the perfect mother, wife and professional all at the same time. I felt like I was failing. I couldn’t even voice my concerns in a rational way. Instead I found myself turning inward, angry and alone. Then a few days before Halloween, 2012, as the dire weather

predictions kept getting worse, a friend in LA texted me. This smart, funny friend of mine earnestly urged me to evacuate my family, that this one looked bad. I knew I would have to go to work in the city during the storm. And our son was only ten months old, so it seemed like an odd, unnecessary defi-ance for us to stay. So we decamped to a friend’s couch in Brooklyn and I headed into work. We all know what the next few weeks and then months were like. When we were able to return to our neighborhood days after the storm, it was unrecognizable. We couldn’t return home for almost two months. That began a string of friends and family lending hands that we’ve still never found the words to say thank you for. And yet, our lives slowly fell apart. Our world became completely unrecognizable in the piles of debris, the wrecked homes, the filth that covered everything for months. The first year of the recovery was largely taking a huge, deep breath and shaking off that debris, rebuilding

what we could of our homes and businesses. But what I didn’t realize going into the second year of recovery, was that Sandy had become a dividing line in my life. Nothing would ever be quite the same. My relationship to the ocean, my relationship to my husband and even to my own ability to separate real disaster from the chaos that everyday life in New York can bring if you let it. I’ve spent the past seven months in my apartment, in one of the old pre-war buildings right on the coast. I wake up every morning and the first thing I see when I open my front door is the very same ocean that changed my life forever. I stop, look, and find that I am surprisingly grateful for its beauty and for its power to envelop us all in its unfaltering waves. The swell never stops coming and I oddly find that comforting now. I hear it when I open that door. And I’m learning not to be so afraid. Hopefully others on this peninsula are experiencing similar moments of peace two years after Sandy. As we all rightly discuss the politics of bracing for the next storms with new infrastructure, building codes, insurance policy and making sure that those that did not get the aid they needed in this unprecedented storm get it, that we will find and engineer ways to live by an unforgiving sea, for the time being at least. And yet, our souls still crave this place, this ocean. We still learn from it, open ourselves up to it and accept that it has deeper lessons to give us, even when they are spelled out in disaster and that is okay too.(Jen Poyant is a Senior Producer at WNYC Radio and lives in Rockaway Park. Twitter: @jpoyant)

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I accepted the assignment before realizing just how much I was getting myself into. The anxiety began almost immediately. I wrote back “What did you have in mind?” hoping for something straightforward, a framework within which to tackle it. He responded with some choices. I could either cover a business, another person, or talk about my experience- specifically: “what I went through and where I am today.” I will admit that I was daunted by the task. Nobody’s story is any more important than anyone else’s. I worried that writing about my story would seem selfish, the crux of my problem being that I can’t write about my experience with Hurricane Sandy - without also mentioning my Father’s unexpected death during that time. It’s inextricable. I wrestled with this for quite a few weeks, and in the end chose to do so solely from the reasoning that there may be common ground for others to relate to. Like many- I was home that night, like some- I was a renter, like all- I mucked out, like a few- I lost a loved one. When asked “What I went through and where I am today”- my first thoughts went to “Where am I philosophically?” We live in a diverse community representing many cul-tures and religions. I tried to think of a univer-sal approach. In the end, I decided that I couldn’t write about all this without touching upon the Ancient Greeks and Stoicism. Whenever I think about that time, my thoughts always return to the same 3 ques-tions. #1. Monday night 10/29/12 as the water rushed into my basement, I remember calling my landlord to describe the scene. Living far away and not yet understanding the scope of what was taking place- he

innocently asked if perhaps I had left a win-dow open, and then: “Could this have been prevented?” In my panic, you can imagine how I must have wanted to respond as I watched the water reach the ceiling and then rise up the steps toward my kitchen. Having lost all cars from three Rockaway households, not only was it difficult to get to work, get supplies/food/gas, get the chil-dren to school… but it proved even more challenging for my family to get my Dad to his appointments. In treatment for Cancer since January 2012, he had been going through chemotherapy and was scheduled to start a new round at the end of October. With help from others, we did our best to stay on course, nevertheless he passed away a little over a month later, on December 5th. In what we didn’t know would be his last weeks of life; we were able to get him the care that he needed, but looking back – in the chaos and aftermath of the storm- what we weren’t able to give him was our time.On top of a funeral to deal with, we were still fighting for our homes. With so much still to do, the grief and survivor’s guilt would have to wait until later, which brings me to a phone conversation with my Mother in February 2013, and question #2., when she asked: “Will there ever be anyone else who could relate to us?” Expanding on that theme; I’m sure at one time or another, many of us were asked the same question that I was, by others outside of what we were going through. #3. “Why would you stay?” For me the answer resides in questions#1 and #2. Anyone who was home that night will tell

By Luiza Baker

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WWhen Kevin Boyle asked if I would be willing to write something for the Sandy anniversary issue, I said “Sure.”

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you, nothing was going to stop that wall of water. Could the damages from the surge have been mitigated? Sure, but I’ll leave that response for John Cori. Could the event have been prevented? No. Why do we stay? I believe that coming together as a community and each realizing our own small part of a greater whole, mixed with a touch of cosmic determinism, is what has kept us here. We stay because we feel a connection to each other in a Universal and philosophical sense. We stay because we have a unique appreciation and respect for nature that not only recognizes our place in it, but our lack of control over it. We stay for the love of being part of something bigger, to be surrounded by those who relate to this experience, and what we have discovered about ourselves as a result. Where am I now? I am in Rockaway, and so what does that mean philosophically? It means that after what I have been through- I choose to stay, drawing upon the Stoics from time to time, who accord-ing to Russell Bertrand believed “Virtue consists in a will that is in agreement with Nature.” This virtue is not unique to Rockaway, but perhaps this is where we all are now, and why we all have stayed. We witness the tides of change all around us. We face the waves every day. We choose to ride them. Together.

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By Bianca Fortis The first floor of Moira Duffy’s Breezy Point home was flooded with five feet of water during Hurricane Sandy. Her house was spared from the fires that night and its foundation held steady, but she lost all of her posses-sions on the first floor of her home. “I thought maybe there would be some mild flooding,” she said. “I didn’t think the water was going to be rush-ing through my house.” Expecting the storm to be as mild as Hurricane Irene, Duffy said she did very little to prepare. She tied down her outdoor furniture, turned her gas and power off and brought her potted plants indoors. She left for upstate New York, expecting to return to her home soon afterward. She said that should another storm come, she would move her most prized possessions – as well as the most expensive ones – to the top floor. That includes family photo albums, as well as mattresses and appliances that were costly to replace. More importantly, she would urge her loved ones to leave with her. Last time, she said, some of her family members were trapped in Breezy Point, and she had no way to reach them. Phyllis Taiano, a Middle Village resident, was involved with rescuing pets from both Queens and Brooklyn

after the storm. She runs Four Paws Sake Rescue and volunteers with Animal Care and Control. She said the ACC and other shelters saw a huge influx of animals but had no system in place to connect them with their own-ers or provide long term shelter. While some pet owners tried to pick up their animals, many did not have proof that they were theirs – the necessary documents had been washed away by the storm. Eventually television personality Rachael Ray donated $500,000 to the ASPCA, which was used to set up a holding facility in Brooklyn for animals for a month. Taiano said that, ideally, a shelter and a system should be set up to help save animals before another storm comes.She added that a foster network for pets could also be an alternative. While many families tried to save their pets, many just weren’t ready for what was to come. “I don’t think a lot of people realized this catastrophe was going to hap-

Rockaway Shares ‘Lessons Learned’

continued on page 19

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‘Lessons Learned’continued from page 17pen,” she said. “I don’t think they real-ized the weight of it.” Arverne resident Selma Erey said she had nowhere to live when the storm devastated her home, so she stayed in one room on the second floor, despite not having electricity or gas. She said an insurance adjuster came five times within two months to examine the place before the insur-ance company would agree to give her money – an experience she described as distress-ing.Because she had to wait so long for the claim to go through, the house grew mold and she soon developed the notorious “Rockaway Cough.” Even now, she continues to have prob-lems with the Build it Back program. She was able to rebuild her home, as well as her bulkhead, and believes she would fare better during another storm.

And even if the home suffers some damage, she said she’ll fix everything herself right away, rather than wait for help from an insurance company or a government agency. “I know that I would like to be as autonomous as possible,” she said. “That would be the best way to go.”

Local civic activist Phillip McManus said the government’s response – or lack thereof – to the devas-tation caused by the hurricane helped him see the many issues plaguing the peninsula. And he learned to never rely solely on the government for help, he said. Only 24 percent of

the city’s registered voters voted for now-Mayor Bill de Blasio in the last election, McManus said. “Nobody cares,” he said. “There’s so much apathy. We have a government that doesn’t listen to us which rein-forces that apathy.”

“There’s so much apathy. We have a government that doesn’t listen to us which reinforces that apathy.”

Since 2005, the Rockaway Waterfront Alliance (RWA) has been to respond to the Rockaway community’s growing environmental and health needs. We aim to connect our community to our waterfront through environmental stewardship and education through our youth programs. As the 2nd anniversary of Storm Sandy approaches we remain committed to the revitalization of the Rockaways and it's residents. RWA would like to thank the Rockaway community for all of their support.

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they needed to rebuild from insurance com-panies, but others are paying much out of pocket or by other means. “We paid $650,000 for the house we bought four months before the storm and received $435,000 to rebuild. A new foundation alone costs $98,000 and, as part of a new requirement from the city, we all had to get an indoor sprinkler system, which cost $12,000. I started out spending $110,000 without even buying my first stick of wood,” Joe Napoli said, adding that outside help has been limited. “FEMA didn’t give us anything because we had insurance. We had to get another mortgage. Build it Back was painful. They sent two lead inspectors to my house. I didn’t have a house.” Bunyan, who was also underinsured, decided to rely on Build it Back for the rebuilding of his home. “The quotes we were getting for rebuilding were high and it sounded like Build it Back was going to bridge the difference between what the insurance covered and what it cost to rebuild. We signed up on June 3, 2013, the first day they opened.” That was followed by visits from inspectors, piles of paper-work, having to resend documents that

Build it Back lost and many meetings. Build it Back started work on Bunyan’s house on September 11 of this year. “It has really been a long, drawn out process,” Bunyan said. Wanting to get back into her home as soon as she could, Mack, of Breezy Point, opted for a modular home, thinking it would be quicker. The house was put in place a few weeks after the first anniversary of Sandy, but that didn’t mean she could move in. “They said I’d be in by Thanksgiving. Then they said I’d be in by Christmas,” Mack said. She had to wait for utilities like electric, gas and water to be installed and for the city to determine that the building was safe. She didn’t move in until May of this year. DiBenedetto says navigating through City requirements and permits has been one of the most difficult aspects. “The amount of permits you need and the cost of the per-mits are ridiculous. They held us up for a month because we didn’t have a demolition permit, even though the city gave us per-mission to demo the house. You have to go through permits for everything like water connections and sidewalks and all of the rules were changing so fast, the city had to

The Battle of the Burnouts…continued from page B12 keep reprocessing the permits. Eight

months is a long time to wait for a building permit when you’re living away from your home,” he said. Among some of the new rules for rebuilding is the requirement for an indoor sprinkler system and elevated homes. With FEMA flood maps changing throughout the process, the required elevation for each home became tricky to navigate, but all of the new homes going up are much higher up than they were. The Woods’ new home is up nine feet. DiBenedetto’s starts at eight feet, eight inches. Napoli’s home starts at eight feet. Mack’s house only had to be elevated to six feet. When Bunyan’s home is complete, it will be 12-feet-high. The houses are so high that many include elevators. Each family is at a different stage of the rebuilding process. Construction on the Woods’ home began in September 2013. They moved in this past July. “It’s the best feeling in the world to be back in the house,” Michele Woods said. Mack was the first to move back into the burned area of Breezy Point when she moved into her modular home in May, but the adjustment hasn’t been easy and she feels her house is not quite a home yet. “I’m so happy to be back in Breezy, but it’s not the same. I loved my other house. Nothing I have here now is what I had before. I have no pictures. There’s still work to be done. It’s like I’ve been living in a con-struction zone for the past five months,” Mack said. Napoli is hoping to be home before Thanksgiving, but having to wait for utilities is slowing the pro-cess. “If I had the utilities, I’d move into the house now,” he said. To add insult to injury, on October 15, Napoli’s landlord said he wanted him out within 30 days because the landlord wants to move back into the apart-ment. “We have nowhere to go,” Napoli said. DiBenedetto and Bunyan are also paying rent to live elsewhere and won’t be back in their homes until 2015. “Since construction started in May, it has been going pretty smoothly. They said I’m supposed to be in by March. That’s wishful thinking. Hopefully, by next sum-mer, we’ll be settled in the home,” DiBenedetto said.

Bunyan hopes to be in by spring, but the spring isn’t soon enough. “Coming up on two years, when we hit October 29 and we’re still out of the house and knowing that we’re still going to be out for Thanksgiving and Christmas, it really hits home hard,” Bunyan said. To add to the stress, Bunyan recently received a letter from FEMA saying that he must pay back the $2,948 in rental assistance that he received a week after the storm. While the residents of the burned-down houses say the experience has made them closer, many agree that they wouldn’t want to do it again. “It’s just exhausting. It’s more mentally exhausting than physically. It affects every part of your life,” Napoli said. “I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy’s worst enemy,” Bunyan said. “Sandy left a scar and a fear that this can happen again at anytime. I don’t want to do this again. No one should have to do this again, DiBenedetto said. Officials determined that the fires in Rockaway and Breezy Point were electrical fires. About 120 of the homeowners are part of an $80 million lawsuit which claims Long Island Power Authority and National Grid should be held responsible for not turning off the electric grid during Sandy. In July, a judge denied a motion by the utility compa-nies to dismiss the lawsuit.

The Woods home as it stands today.

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To the residents of the Rockaways,

Breezy Point and Broad Channel…

As we approach this second anniversary

of Hurricane Sandy, I want to pledge my

unyielding support to those who are still

struggling to recover. Please know that you

are not forgotten, and that I will continue

to stand with you until every family

is whole again.

Melinda Katz

Queens Borough President


By Katie McFadden The Rockaway Times isn’t the only new business to start since Hurricane Sandy. Nearly 30 new busi-nesses have opened since the storm, which is a good sign that people are willing to take a chance on a busi-ness in a place where many were destroyed on October 29, 2012. Pico brought Mexican cuisine to Belle Harbor the first time when it opened on Beach 129th Street on October 17, 2013. While Pico may be new to the com-munity, Bill Keating has be a longtime owner of the building. The space was formerly a seafood restaurant called Rockaway Seafood Company. “The community had become so devastated by the storm and we collec-tively felt that our menu design before was a bit costly for people to consider dining out while they were rebuilding,” Keating said about the change. “Mexican food was popular and it was a type of cuisine that

Rockaway didn’t have.” During the rebuilding process, RSC was transformed into a place that serves tacos, burritos and quesadillas rather than sushi. Forty inches of water had flooded the restaurant and fire burned the entire back of the building, leaving Keating having to start new and pay close to $500,000 for the rebuild, but Keating is glad he did. “I can’t say enough about the outpouring of business and good will that we’ve received from the community since we opened.” Breezy Dogs, Shakes & More also came to the block. The business, owned by Maria Binder, has long existed as a food truck, typically parked in Fort Tilden, but since opening as a store in May, the Breezy Dogs, Shakes & More has been a hit among locals, especially students. A temporary clothing store, CK & More, which sells brand name clothes, also opened next door. The busy commercial strip of Beach 116th Street has also undergone some changes. With help from the Small Business Services, many of the storefronts

got an updated look and business owners formed the Beach 116th Street Partnership to help organize events that bring positive attention to the block. The block welcomed the new addition of the juice shop Local Liquids, owned by Georjean McHale and Maureen Buckley, on June 8th. “We were talking one night and said we needed something healthy in Rockaway. There was nowhere to really get some-thing healthy, so we decided we’d provide an option,” Buckley said. New businesses also opened along the boule-vards, not far from Beach 116th. On Beach Channel Drive, The Rockaway Times headquarters opened up at the old Belle Rock cabstand. Dunkin Donuts/Baskin Robbins moved into the building that used to be Wendy’s and Liquor and Wine Warehouse opened right near Waldbaums. Rockaway Beach Boulevard saw the addition of the Mexican restaurant, El Pasatiempo, now called The King of Tacos. A few doors down, the Blackwater was bought by Danny and Stephanie Routledge, who transformed it into Brendan’s Bar in May. “Things just changed for every-body when Sandy came along and that’s when I decided to take a chance on opening my own bar,” Danny Routledge said. “This place was for sale. Life is too short and I decided to give it a shot.” The strip mall near Beach 104th Street and Rockaway Beach Boulevard was beautified by the addition of Studio 10 Nail Spa and Nicole Frontera Beauty. Seeing the need to provide services that are abundant in Manhattan, but lacking in Rockaway, Nicole Frontera opened her medical spa in November 2013. Frontera was providing injectable services such as botox and fillers before Sandy and was considering opening a spa in the basement of her home, but like many homes in Rockaway, Sandy destroyed her base-ment. Frontera was surprised when her business picked up after Sandy. “I had accumulated a lot of cli-ents before Sandy and six weeks after the storm, I started getting an overwhelming amount of phone calls. People would call saying how their life was in shambles and they just wanted to do something to look better. People still wanted to make themselves feel good even in a time of chaos. It made me realize that we really needed something like this here. After the storm, I wanted to help our community become better so people didn’t have to leave the peninsula for everything.” One of the biggest areas to see a business boom since Sandy was Rockaway Beach. So many business-es opened around the Beach 90’s in recent years, that the area now has two business coalitions, including the Hospitality and Entertainment Association for Restaurants and Taverns for Rockaway Beach (Heart), which hosts the Taste of Rockaway Event and the

BUSINESSES BORNPOST SANDY

BUSINESSES BORNPOST SANDY


Dozens of New Stores Open Since SandySANDY

Words & Memories SanitationVolunteersRockaway coughWishGraybeardsMormonsRubiconDry SocksTollsEvacuationDarknessNor’easterYanaNo Halloween DomeHabitat for HumanityDouble DunesBleachFEMAFlood InsuranceRelief CenterHelpstersRiis Park Parking lotNeighborsNails in road

RelocatedMoldMuckTraffic Baffle wallsBathrooms in the skyDead treesLilcoSocial MediaDonationsGas linesRapid RepairPresidential electionMarines on the beachOccupy SandyBoardwalk islandsWhere’s Fema?Where’s OEM?NYC MarathonFirePumping OutWater tableGeneratorsHot showerThe Ferry

A Line out of serviceLooting rumorsRed, Blue, Yellow stickersStars of HopeGo PackWhere’s Red Cross?BatteriesFlashlightsAmishNo CommunicationMarissa BernowitzCars destroyedSand Non-profitsSikhsBoardwalk piecesNo trick or treatingScarpingJohn CoriDylan SmithWaterlineThe Weekly Local

e eplease take oneFREEmade i

n Rockaway

nRockawaythe

oosince 2014

Times

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My thoughts and prayers are with the families and individuals still recovering both financially and emotionally from

Sandy. If I can be of any assistance please contact me.

Joseph P. Addabbo, Jr. New York State Senator

District 15—

District Office:88-08 Rockaway Beach Boulevard

Rockaway Beach, N.Y. 11693(718) 318-0702

(718) 318-0194 – FAX


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Rockaway Beach Merchant’s Association. Since Sandy, Rockaway Beach Boulevard gained several new busi-nesses including the uzbek restaurant, Uma’s, Playland Motel, Whit’s End pizza, VIP IV Daycare Center, South Island Medical Associates, Clicqers Beauty Salon, Uncle Louie G’s Italian ice and ice cream shop, and two wine bars, Sayra’s and The Rock. Mara Valentino, co-owner of Uncle Louie G’s didn’t want to work for anyone else anymore and saw an opportunity to open her own business in Rockaway. “Everything was being rebuilt and revitalized and I wanted to be a part of it,” Valentino said. In November 2013, she attended the Rolling Up the Gates event to scope out potential places to bring Uncle Louie G’s to Rockaway. After a deal for a spot on Beach 116th Street fell through, she was able to scoop up a spot in Rockaway Beach. She, along with her nephew, Christopher, opened on April 26.“It’s fate. It’s a much better spot down here,” Valentino said. She plans on sticking around for several years to come and may even open a second location. The Rock Wine Bar opened on May 5. “It was on my bucket list for years. I had this dream of opening a bar for 15 or 20 years,” owner Cecil Brando said. “What guy doesn’t want to open their own bar?” Brando, whose brother-in-law owns Elegante, found opportunity with-in Sandy to go for his dream. “The space next door to Elegante was a big gaping hole. I told them I would take

it over, clean it up and build something that would add value to the block and wouldn’t compete with their food,” Brando, who takes pride in the bar’s international tapas menu, said. Brando believes he has kept that promise in the five months that The Rock has been open. “The neighborhood has been extremely supportive. Customers welcome the space and tell me they want to come back. They want spaces that add value to the neighborhood. By us doing our part, it is setting the bar for even more businesses to come.”Another area that has seen a big increase in new busi-nesses is Arverne. After many years of waiting, the Rockaway YMCA finally opened to residents on February 15. A commercial strip from Beach 67th to Beach 68th Street also welcomed many new busi-nesses including Chase Bank, Impressions by Theresa Nail Center, Subway, Dunkin Donuts, Checkers, Thai Kitchen by the Sea, Micky’s Dry Cleaning, Breakwater Surf Shop and Boardwalk Pizza. Owner Bart Troiano says Boardwalk Pizza was supposed to open in December 2012, but Sandy changed some plans. Miraculously, the building didn’t have much water damage, unlike the Chase bank near the corner, which had three feet of water. “For the most part, we were lucky,” Troiano said. Instead of opening in December, Boardwalk Pizza opened in April 2013 as the empty building needed to be transformed into a pizza place and contractors were hard to come by following the storm. “Everyone else was hurt so badly, that this

project was put on the back burner,” he said. While pizza places are aplenty in Rockaway, customers have responded well to the newcomer. “Our customer base runs from the 20s all the way up to Beach 149th Street. We’re getting good feedback,” Troiano said. Some new business owners took unique routes to sell their products. Christopher Andrew, co-owner of Holland Helado started selling gourmet ice cream sand-wiches right from his family’s front lawn this summer. Last Dragon Pizza took a social media approach and sells specialty pizza on Wednesdays and Fridays. They accept orders through text, Facebook or their website, and customers are only told the secret location where they can pick up their pizza when their order is ready. End of the A, a mobile boutique, went with the idea of bringing their store right to customers, as they sell clothing and accessories from a big pink truck.Rockaway locals, Tara McKiernan and Beth Waytowich launched their mobile boutique, featuring products made by locals, during Memorial Day weekend. “We felt that Rockaway could use a place where everyone could shop and they would appreciate something unique like this,” McKiernan said. The women found a mobile shop to be more economic than a store, and when taking Sandy into consideration, a safer busi-ness option. “We saw how badly small businesses were affected by Sandy and how hard it was to get back up and running. God forbid anything like that happens, we can park the truck somewhere it would

be safe,” McKiernan said. The women found that cus-tomers respond well to the truck shop. “At first we thought people might by iffy about it, but as soon as we opened, people saw it and came in and were very interested in the story of the truck. Everyone had been so supportive.” Waytowich said. “I think sandy was a blessing in disguise. It sucked and it was horrible and I hope it never comes back, but we’re rebuilding better and stronger and all business-es do nothing but make this community better,” Valentino said.

Dozens of New Stores Open Since Sandycontinued from page B21

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the rockaway times, sandy anniversary edition: oct. 29, 2014

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