Editorial

Four years after Sandy, we’re still not whole

Posted

Unbelievably, four years have passed since Superstorm Sandy rolled across Long Island’s South Shore on Oct. 29, 2012, leaving destruction and chaos in its wake. We mustn’t forget that day.

It was our day of reckoning.

For years we had been warned that the Big One was coming, but we never quite believed that a monster storm, the magnitude of Sandy, would materialize. We became complacent.

Even on the day of the storm, we didn’t really believe it. That was why so many South Shore residents, despite numerous pleas by emergency officials to evacuate, stayed put. That was clearly a mistake. Lesson One from Sandy: Run –– don’t walk –– to higher ground when a massive, or not so massive, hurricane is approaching.

Today we are wiser, but are we better off? The overwhelming majority of residents whose homes were damaged by Sandy have recovered. Their houses are all back together again. There are a number of people, however, for whom that isn’t true. Their homes are still little more than shells, and that should anger us all. The South Shore will not be made whole again until all residents are back in fully repaired homes.

Elected officials must continue to advocate for homeowners who are in greatest need. At the same time, our elected representatives must hold the Governor’s Office of Storm Recovery accountable for the “resiliency” projects that it promised to implement in order to help mitigate damage from future big storms –– and, with Earth continuing to warm, there are more such tempests on the horizon, scientists tell us.

Most of those projects –– whether they be storm-drain check valves in Bellmore-Merrick, higher bulkheads in Long Beach or reinforced water pumps in Atlantic Beach –– remain unrealized four years later. That is unacceptable.

We need these projects to stave off the next Big One –– at least to the degree that we can. The Office of Storm Recovery must do all it can to work with Nassau County’s towns and villages to expedite resiliency projects through the approval process –– and get this work going sooner rather than later.