Six months after Hurricane Sandy, thousands are still homeless
MANTOLOKING, n.j. — The 9-year-old girl who got New Jersey’s tough-guy governor to shed a tear as he comforted her after her home was destroyed is bummed because she now lives far from her best friend and has nowhere to hang her One Direction posters.
A New Jersey woman whose home was overtaken by mold still cries when she drives through the area. A New York City man whose home burned can’t wait to build a new one.
Six months after Hurricane Sandy devastated the Jersey shore and New York City and pounded coastal areas of New England, the region is dealing with a slow and frustrating recovery.
“Some families and some lives have come back together quickly and well, and some people are up and running almost as if nothing ever happened, and for them it’s been fine,” New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said at a news conference Thursday. “Some people are still very much in the midst of recovery. You still have people in hotel rooms, you still have people doubled up, you still have people fighting with insurance companies, and for them it’s been terrible and horrendous.”
Lynda Fricchione’s flood-damaged home in the Ortley Beach section of Toms River, N.J., is gutted. The roof was fixed just last week.
The family is largely living out of cardboard boxes in an apartment. Waiting for a decision from federal and state authorities over new flood maps that govern the price of flood insurance is tormenting her and many others.
“The largest problem is, nobody really knows how high we’re going to have to elevate the house,” she said. “At town hall, they told us 5 feet, but then they said it might go down to 3 feet in the summer. Most of us are waiting until the final maps come out. It’s wait-and-see.”
More than anything, Fricchione is optimistic, buoyed by a recent trip to New Orleans with her daughter during which they met a resident of the Lower Ninth Ward who was one of the first to move back in after Hurricane Katrina.
“Talking to that man was wonderful!” Fricchione said. “He said it takes time and you just have to have hope and know it will all work out eventually.”
The recovery from Hurricane Sandy, which struck Oct. 29, has been slow. From Maryland to New Hampshire, the National Hurricane Center attributes 72 deaths directly to Sandy and 87 others indirectly from causes such as hypothermia due to power outages, carbon-monoxide poisoning and accidents during cleanup efforts.
- Feb 18:
- Untold tons of junk clog waterways after Hurricane Sandy
- Jan 26:
- Those in hotels after Sandy live in state of anxiety
- Jan 13:
- Sandy relief package swells aid for past disasters
- Jan 5:
- Congress passes $9.7 billion in Hurricane Sandy aid
- Dec 16:
- Hurricane Sandy victims struggle with emotional, mental trauma
- Dec 2:
- Month after Sandy, 12,000 still living in unheated, damaged homes
- Nov 24:
- Immigrants hit hard by Hurricane Sandy afraid to ask for help
- Nov 19:
- Christie, Cuomo, Bloomberg get praise for response to Hurricane Sandy
- Nov 18:
- New York to demolish 200 homes damaged by Hurricane Sandy
- Nov 16:
- Obama tours Sandy-damaged areas in New York, vows to help all victims
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Thousands still homeless after Sandy
Published time: April 29, 2013 19:06
Tens of thousands of Hurricane Sandy victims still remain homeless, desperately waiting for government assistance while fearfully anticipating the start of another hurricane season.
Some victims are living out of cardboard boxes, overstaying their welcomes at the homes of friends and family while their own houses remain demolished. Families remain separated, dispersed throughout the country as they continue to fight with their insurance companies for assistance that has never come. Businesses are shuttered, homes are overtaken by mold and piles of rubble litter the backyards of the houses that now stand empty.
Victims relying on subsidized hotel rooms could soon end up on the streets, since government relief funding is set to expire. Advocates claim there is not enough public and low-income housing to accommodate the hundreds who have relied on FEMA-subsidized hotel rooms for the past six months.
In the seaside community of Breezy Point, Queens, 2,400 of the 2,800 homes remain unoccupied. The neighborhood stands as a ghost town, illuminated only by the flames of the fire burning down the houses red-tagged for demolition.
“Insurance and the new building codes delay everything. It’s like Breezy is frozen in time,” Michael Sullivan, a resident of the seaside community, told the New York Daily News.
And after six months of a gruelingly slow recovery, tens of thousands of residents remain homeless, dreaming of a normal life that they may never be able to return to.
“Some people are still very much in the midst of recovery. You still have people in hotel rooms, you still have people doubling up, you still have people fighting with insurance companies, and for them it’s been terrible and horrendous,” said Gov. Andrew Cuomo, ahead of the six-month anniversary of Hurricane Sandy.
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Snowbelt: The East Coast could get hit with up to 12 inches of snow as a powerful system moves east
Variations on a storm: However, other weather prediction services show that the majority of the storm will be further north
Path: By Friday evening at 7pm the storm is projected to be just off the eastern coast of New Jersey as depicted by NOAA here
Knee deep: An accumulated snow forecast from Intellicast shows one storm system coming across the Midwest into the East Coast
Bundling up: On Friday snow, seen in blue, is expected to blanket parts of the northeast while accompanying patches of ice, seen in pink and purple
J. Scott Applewhite / AP
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