New York Post - Sandy: A Story of Complete Devastation, Courage, and Recovery

Two weeks after Sandy hit the New York region, sand piles and damaged vehicles remained on Ocean Avenue in Brooklyn. (N.Y. Post: Charles Wenzelberg)

Contents

N.Y. Post: Spencer Burnett

Introduction by Andy Soltis

It was huge, powerful and terrifying, so much so that forecasters gave it names like Frankenstorm more than a week before it touched U.S. land. Hurricane Sandy would wreak havoc in more than a dozen states, killing nearly 300 people in seven countries, creating wind gusts as far west as Wisconsin and as far north as Canada, causing water levels to rise from Florida to Maine and inflicting Katrina-level damage.

But she saved her worst for the Northeast, including New York, New Jersey and the region.

Wed never seen anything like Sandy, which destroyed whole neighborhoods, turning parts of Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and Hoboken into ghost towns. Miles and miles of the famed Jersey Shore were sunk under tons of water as the tide rose to at least eight feet above normal. Large swaths of Long Island, Westchester and Connecticut were without power for weeks just a year after taking a hit from Hurricane Irene. Lower Manhattan was dark for five days and hospitals near the surging East River had to scramble to evacuate bed-ridden patients.

The misery was everywhere, the personal tragedies unending.

A Staten Island mother tried to lead her sons, 2 and 4, to safety the night Sandy arrived but the raging storm ripped them from her arms. Their bodies were finally found in marshland, three days later, by cops in wet suits.

A 29-year-old Flushing, Queens man was killed in his bedroom when a tree branch at least three feet wide fell into his home.

The body of a 66-year-old former Marine, who lived alone with his cat, was only discovered in his flooded Staten Island home after 11 days.

There were also stories of heroism and sacrifice. A man walking his dog on deserted downtown Hubert Street when Sandy made landfall found himself in chest-high water and certain he would drown. But alert security officers pulled him and his dog to safety.

As Sandy hit, free sand bags were made available in Brooklyns Red Hook neighborhood. (N.Y. Post: Spencer Burnett)

Photographs told their own stunning stories. They showed war-zone-like debris where 111 homes once stood in Breezy Point. An entire fleet of taxi cabs under water in a Hoboken parking lot. The red-and-yellow marquis sign of the 87-year-old Shore Theater in Staten Island crumpled like building blocks.

A giant tanker ship sitting strangely ashore along Front Street on Staten Island. A Bay Head, N.J. man digging though mounds and mounds of sand in his living room. And the entire facade of a four-story apartment building in the Chelsea section of Manhattan ripped away, leaving it like a see-through dollhouse.

Quickly the enormity of the damage sunk in. Forty-eight deaths were reported in the New York area. Nearly 8,000 trees had fallen in the city. More than two million people in New York State and another 2.5 million in New Jersey were without power. Lost business counted in the tens of billions of dollars and many companies never reopened.

But the region fought to come back, buoyed by President Obama, who consoled the suddenly homeless and hopeless in New Jersey two days after the storm, followed by a visit to Staten Island two weeks later. Marines pitched in with emergency workers at the Midland Beach section of Staten Island.

New Yorks public schools reopened after a week. A tottering building crane, which broke loose high above W. 57th Street and forced the evacuation of neighboring buildings, was secured and residents were allowed back into their buildings after six days. Parks, libraries and city offices slowly got back to normal. The New York Knicks-Brooklyn Nets opening game was delayed but the New York Giants game the Sunday after Sandy was played on schedule at MetLife Stadium.

Still, there were new problems that didnt go away. Enormous lines at gasless gas stations and power outages that lasted in some neighborhoods for weeks. Officials estimated the damage would cost upward of $75 billion and take the region more than a year to recover.

The badly bruised spirit of the region consoled itself with the generous efforts of many who pitched in.

Bruce Springsteen, Jon Bon Jovi, Eric Clapton and a host of others performed at a Madison Square Garden concert to benefit Sandy victims. Newlyweds Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel passed out relief supplies in the Rockaways.

And it wasnt all big names who helped.

A Brooklyn man spearheaded a toy drive and traded his business suit for a Santa costume so he could bring a little Christmas to kids in battered Belle Harbor.

A Secret Sandy charity was formed and quickly got 3,200 donors to provide Christmas gifts to 1,800 families in need.

Even families that lost loved ones in the 2001 crash of Flight 587 in the Rockaways took up a collection for residents of the devastated neighborhood.

They remembered what pain felt like. And what courage looked like. So would anyone who lived through Sandy.

An aerial view captures the devastation along the coast in Rockaway Beach, Queens. (N.Y. Post: Matthew McDermott)

Part I. Bringing Hell and High Water

A massive tanker named the John B. Caddell, built in 1941, washed ashore on Staten Island during Hurricane Sandy. The Manhattan skyline can be seen in the background beyond the ship, which weighed more than 700 tons. (N.Y. Post: Chad Rachman)

Sandy Slams New York Area

Mass Floods, Outages Wreak Havoc

By David Seifman, Sally Goldenberg and Dan Mangan

Hurricane Sandy blasted the New York area on Monday, October 29, 2012.

The storm, its winds flirting with 100 mph, unleashed a wave of devastation from which it could take weeks to recover.

In flooded lower Manhattan, water gushed into the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel and cars were floating in the streets.

There was no dry land anywhere in the Rockaways, where cops in the 100th Precinct station house were trapped on the buildings second floor.

As Sandy reached land near Atlantic City, it was downgraded to a tropical storm after its winds weakened slightly.