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Reflect, recover, renew

East Rockaway, Bay park communities come together for Sandy's one-year anniversary

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Dozens of residents lined the Grand Canal in Bay Park on Oct. 29 to observe the one-year anniversary of the storm that devastated their community and changed their lives forever.

“The gathering was very uplifting,” said resident Deborah Lilly. “Even if you didn’t know your neighbor standing next to you, there was a bond of community. We’ve been through a major disaster together, and we will heal together.”

Planned by a local organization, the11518, and its founder, Dan Caracciolo — and promoted by online social media postings and word of mouth — the event, called Reflect, Recover, Renew, was bittersweet for many who still count themselves among the 40 percent of Bay Park residents who are not yet back in their homes.

“The response was overwhelming, and we were so grateful to stand shoulder to shoulder with our community like [this] again,” Caracciolo said. “To see all the faces again, collectively, is inspiring.”

Caracciolo stood shoulder to shoulder with the Rev. Mark Lukens of the Bethany Congregational Church as Lukens spoke of how far Sandy victims have come, and, he added, “how far we need to go still.”

“We can triumph over this and any other tragedy that comes our way, as long as we stick together, take care of each other and leave no one behind,” said Lukens, whose church, on Main Street, served as a makeshift supply station for weeks after the storm. “That is what makes us a community, and that is what makes us strong.”

Lukens, who lives with his family in the parsonage behind the church, recalled the night Hurricane Sandy came through, saying that as he stepped out on his front steps, he was startled to see water rushing up the street.

“The night sky lit up by the explosions of the transformers on the telephone poles, the winds raging in the dark — it was as close to the biblical story of Armageddon as I ever want to get.”

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