Hurricane Sandy: Two years on

Some storm victims return, others remain displaced

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Just days before the two-year anniversary of Hurricane Sandy — after staying at seven different hotels and apartments, as well as crashing at friends’ houses — Harmon Street residents Tim and Michelle Kelly and their two children finally returned home last Saturday.

“The kids, while we were moving everything in, went to visit their neighborhood friends, who they haven’t really been able to see, and they played all day at the park and rode their bikes — they went straight back to being kids,” said Tim, 46, who co-owns Earth Arts with his wife. “The first thing we did was make a drink — we sat down and just relaxed and looked at everything. People were bringing in bottles of champagne. We hung out with our friends, and to finally relax on a couch in our own house was amazing.”

Sandy damaged the Kellys’ ranch so badly that they decided to tear it down and rebuild. Their home was among the 865 houses that were deemed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to be substantially damaged, meaning that the cost of repairs would be more than half the appraised value. Homeowners were told to either elevate or rebuild them.

Inside Building Commissioner Scott Kemins’s office sits a three-foot-high stack of plans and applications to build new or elevated homes — and those were submitted in just two days, he said. “I think people are really starting to move forward now and do what they need to do to get home one way or another,” said Kemins, adding that there are 200 applications pending. “We’ve probably issued … at least 100 permits already for new or elevated homes.”

Kemins said that less than 5 percent of Long Beach residents remain displaced — though that figure is higher in the heavily damaged West End and the Canals. Many people are still waiting for a reimbursement from New York Rising for rebuilding costs that are not covered by their insurance.

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