The psychology of Sandy

East Rockaway residents still feeling the impact of Hurricane Sandy

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Four years ago this week, Hurricane Sandy was the South Shore’s worst nightmare realized. It was a monster storm that flooded entire communities and left tens of thousands of lives in tatters. For Bay Park residents, that monster arrived just as they finished picking up the pieces left by Tropical Storm Irene in August 2011.

Jackie Ludwig, who lives on West Boulevard, said that Irene filled her home with more than a foot and a half of saltwater, forcing her and her husband, David, to flee to her parents’ house in Merrick. Then, 14 months later, Sandy’s fury hit the South Shore. “We had redone the entire house inside and out,” Ludwig said. “We finally finished the upstairs two months before Sandy.”

Sandy flooded the Ludwigs’ home with five and a half feet of water. Sewage from the nearby Bay Park Sewage Treatment Plant also flowed into the house. The couple once again faced the daunting task of rebuilding.

After Sandy, the Ludwigs stayed with Jackie’s parents again — this time for nearly two years. By the time they returned home, Jackie had given birth to a daughter, Angelina, now 2. Not wanting to be displaced for an extended period of time with a newborn, the Ludwigs chose not to raise their house, despite the possibility that future storms would flood it again. “Quite honestly, I think it’s going to get worse and worse,” Ludwig said. “It’s gonna keep happening.”

Their neighbors Kathleen Schwarting and her husband of 44 years, Bruce, also rebuilt their home after Irene, only to have to repair it again after Sandy, which flooded it with four and a half feet of water. After both storms, the Schwartings stayed at their daughter Kim Albrecht’s house in Baldwin.

“It was devastating,” Kathleen Schwarting said of Sandy. “We lost all of our furniture, even though we were prepared for it.” She added that they had to replace not only furniture, but appliances and beams in the floor. They have been drawing up plans with an architect to raise their home eight feet, but work likely won’t begin until next spring.

She said she believes her community has been forgotten, because she has been told her street is going to be raised and a canal that frequently spills water into her backyard will be worked on, but neither has happened. That is, in part, why Schwarting said that she and her husband are very cautious when it comes to future storms.

“We keep our eyes open,” she said. “We’re very much aware [of] what to do. So that’s why it was equally as frustrating when we got hit so hard by Sandy. There was nothing we could do. We did our best.”

The psychology of a storm

Sandy brought with it a change in mindset for many Long Islanders, who are now more likely to leave their homes when alerted about a coming storm than before. That sense of trepidation is natural, according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America. After a storm as large as Sandy, people fully grasp the awe-inspiring power of a major hurricane. That anxious feeling motivates them to act: either to fight, by battening down their homes and preparing for the worst, or to take flight, by heading to higher ground.

Ben Giliberti was a senior at East Rockaway Junior-Senior High School when Sandy hit. He now attends East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania, but he has noticed his East Rockaway neighbors’ change in attitude toward storms.

“I don’t think anybody really expected the damage that Sandy caused,” Giliberti said. “Now, anytime we hear the word ‘hurricane,’ it kind of sends a little shiver down your back, and you just don’t want to hear it anymore.”

Giliberti said his home on Waterview Street was raised before Sandy, so most of the house withstood the storm. His basement, however, was flooded by eight feet of water, and his family lost many personal items. It took over a year to rebuild, Giliberti said, and the house still isn’t finished.

The storm also wreaked havoc on the high school, forcing students to spend most of the 2012-13 school year at Shubert Elementary School in Baldwin. Going to another town was a huge adjustment for Giliberti, who had to take a 6:30 a.m. bus when he was used to walking to school, and had to use a cubby instead of a locker. “Your luxuries of being a senior were kind of taken away,” he said, “but the school accommodated us.” After spending six months at the elementary school, he added, students returning to East Rockaway for the final four weeks.

Sandy changed the outlook most residents have when they hear that a storm is coming now, Giliberti said. “People are definitely more cautious,” he said. “Moving their cars or preparing their houses, I think we’ll be a little more proactive [next] time, and people will make adjustments to ensure the safety of their homes.”