Schmitt, her husband and two children have been sleeping on a mattress in their living room since the hurricane. “It’s like a hard-sided tent; it’s terrible,” she said. “We had 40 inches of water in our living space and lost everything.”

To maintain her family’s sanity, Schmitt said, she tries to keep to a set schedule of activities. “We try to do the same routines: school, work, sports and Girl Scouts,” she said. “We try to make it as normal as possible.”

For Furscht, beginning repairs has meant relying on the $16,000 she received from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, because she does not have flood insurance. Every other weekend, her granddaughter and grandson-in-law come up from Pennsylvania to fix what they can. “The laundry room is done, but there’s still a lot of work to be done,” she said. “You have to take each day as it comes — that’s all you can do.”

Bennett said that his home is 85 percent complete, but his community is far from whole. “We saw the damage the hurricane did, and we felt sad and we still feel sad,” he said. “I don’t know if everybody will come back or what will happen to the neighborhood, but only time will tell.”

Lombardo said he remains optimistic as his community continues to rebuild. “I’m sure people will come back,” he said. “It was the 100-year storm, or at least I’m hoping, anyway. I don’t want to have to do this again.”