Louisiana Street resident Tracy McAdams, an attorney who is living in New Hampshire with her children while her husband works on their home, said that it was flooded by eight feet of water, and the dunes washed into her street. “We lost our two cars, and we’re still digging out,” McAdams told the Herald last week. “Until we get an adjuster out there, we don’t even know if our house is condemned because the sand has to be removed first in order to get somebody to inspect it.”

She added, “Right now, the big headache is dealing with insurance people out there. Ten days after we filed a claim, we were told to wait another week. You have to be really patient. I found through the process that you have to really be an attorney to get through all this stuff, and I am an attorney and I’m pulling my hair out. It’s really like a full-time job.”

Some renters have also discovered that they cannot return. Stephen Rosen, an accountant who lived on Mitchell Avenue with his wife, is now living in East Northport. Though his apartment was not badly damaged, he said, his landlord’s home in Oceanside was destroyed.

“He said, ‘I have to move my family in that house and you have to go,’” Rosen recounted. “I was kind of pissed, but if it was me who owned the house, I’d do the same thing. It’s very unsettling, but you have a choice of letting it get you down or moving on. I can’t worry about personal inconvenience when I see photos of kids in shelters and other families who are much worse off.”

Maryland Avenue resident Tracy Duttkin, a surfer and volleyball player, is now living in Huntington after her landlord told her that she could not return because the bungalow she was renting was condemned. “I’m really frazzled,” Duttkin said. “I’m having a hard time making a decision about what to do. I guess I’m in denial because I was happy where I was.”

On Monday, however, Duttkin received some good news. “I get to move back home in a month or so!” she wrote on Facebook. “[The] homeowners have decided to repair instead of rebuilding. So relieved!”