It has been six years since Superstorm Sandy flooded coastal New Jersey and low-lying parts of New York City and Long Island, drowning dozens of people.
Recent storms including Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Michael may make Sandy seem like ancient history. But as the victims of the most recent storms will surely learn, the effects of any major storm can be very long-lasting. And as local news outlets are reporting, Sandy’s effects still linger in the storm’s impact zone.
In New York, billions of dollars have been spent on recovery since the storm, but questions and criticism remain, according to the New York Daily News (see: “Six years later, a storm of questions: Build It Back, the Sandy recovery program, left Staten Island high and not-so-dry,” by Amanda Farinacci). “That’s because Build It Back, the city’s housing recovery program, has been riddled with the same kind of bloated costs, delays and bureaucracy that plagued the rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina,” opined the Daily News. “Many homeowners submitted paperwork multiple times, only to find, years into the process, that they were ineligible.
Point Lookout – Long Beach, NY 2018 (Google maps)
Some couldn’t wait for the city to take action and dropped out of the program, choosing to make repairs themselves. Others sold their homes to the state and moved away; other homes went to the bank. Dozens of families are back in their elevated homes, only to find them poorly constructed and unsafe.”
In New Jersey, more than a thousand homeowners are still not back in their houses, reported WPIX Channel 11 (see: “About 1,200 NJ families still can’t go home 6 years after Superstorm Sandy”). “So far, state programs have been able to help rebuild approximately 6,420 Sandy-damaged homes,” the station reported. “New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy announced Monday that more money will now be available to homeowners still struggling to rebuild after Superstorm Sandy, while people who already took out loans from the state to rebuild may now be able to have some or all of their debt forgiven.”
But progress is ongoing, if slow. News 12 Brooklyn highlights 19 new homes nearing completion in the borough (see: “New homes rising from Sandy devastation in Sheepshead Bay”). “New York’s Build it Back Program puts the finishing touches on 19 new homes at Stanton Court, with elevated foundations and modern drainage systems,” the station reported—improvements that the city says will prevent the area from “filling up like a bathtub,” as one homeowner described the Sandy experience.
