Making life in Atlantic Beach work for her family, according to Bitton, includes providing a routine for them. She hopes to be back in Cedarhurst by the end of February, and though she doesn’t live in fear that another natural disaster will happen again, she said she would not stay at home if another one were to occur. “I don’t know what else I could have changed,” she said. “This is the first time it’s happened in a long time, and I can’t live under the assumption that it’ll happen again.”

Zar said he has been affected financially, as he still has to pay his mortgage and utilities for his Cedarhurst home while incurring other living expenses since he has been displaced. He is hoping to return home within the next three months. “Our whole routine has changed,” he said. “It impacts everything.”

Once he is settled back in his home, Zar said, he hopes there won’t be another natural disaster anytime soon. “Hopefully there won’t be a next time,” he said. “I love my neighborhood, but we hear that a lot of people want to move to higher ground or out of New York. Some people are saying that this was a once-in-100-year storm, but I’ve also heard the argument that weather patterns are changing and this will be the new reality. If this happens next year, I think the real estate market in the Five Towns will change dramatically.”