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Hurricane Sandy: Three years later

Residents still trying to reclaim their homes, finances and lives

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“Very few people escaped the wrath of Hurricane Sandy, as the unprecedented storm left a path of destruction in her wake, causing floods, fires, downed trees and massive power outages — damage on a scale that many people said they had never seen in a lifetime of living on Long Island.”
So began the Herald’s front-page story in the Nov. 1-7, 2012, issue, published three days after the storm hit. Little did we know then what an impact Sandy would have on so many readers’ lives, and those of hundreds of thousands more along the East Coast.
The night of Oct. 29, the East Rockaway Fire Department answered dozens of calls and launched its rescue boat, Marine I, as well as two inflatable watercraft, to go where its land-bound vehicles could not. Its headquarters command post had to be moved to higher ground, at Village Hall on Atlantic Avenue, and the National Guard was called in to assist with rescues in Bay Park.
In the weeks and months that followed, many residents lived without electricity or fresh water and had to rely on family members, friends and strangers for their basic needs. Others were forced to relocate until their homes could be evaluated and repaired. Many houses were destroyed by bay and ocean water, especially in Bay Park, where the sewage treatment plant was flooded and went offline for two days, sustaining extensive damage and dumping raw sewage into the bay.

One woman’s story

“By the time the evacuation horn sounded at the end of West Boulevard that night, I had a car full of mainly my 10-year-old daughter Marisa’s possessions,” Janine Hines, of Bay Park, recounted. “My college-aged daughter, Alexa Paradis, was at her boyfriend’s parents’ house in Levittown already, and I headed to Deer Park to stay with my mother-in-law. My husband, Doug, stayed at the house with the dog — as did most men on our street.”

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