The Governor’s Office of Storm Recovery announced the extension of the application period for its new Citizens’ Advisory Committee, related to the $125 million Rebuild By Design (RBD) “Living … more

After the death of Kerry O’Keefe’s son, Kerry Jr., due to drug addiction in 2006, O’Keefe started going to a Manhattan-based bereavement group to cope with the loss. But it didn’t help. “You’d hear stories of some kids that got hit by a car, others that had cancer, but they were treated differently,” he recalled. “There’s a stigma that comes with a drug death that comes up all the time.” more

Rolling River Day Camp sits on five acres along Mill River, which snakes through East Rockaway and Bay Park on the way to East Rockaway Channel. The river can be a friend. It forms an idyllic backdrop for a camp replete with swimming pools, playgrounds and ball fields. It can also be a foe. During a nor’easter in 2010, Tropical Storm Irene in 2011 and Hurricane Sandy in 2012, the river inundated much of the camp, wreaking havoc. more

What’s the biggest concern on Long Island today? Sure, property taxes and quality education are always on everyone’s mind, but right now the heroin epidemic that is threatening members of our community . . . more

Architects, engineers and builders are frantically rebuilding and elevating Hurricane Sandy-ravaged homes across Nassau County’s South Shore these days, and they are expected to get even busier … more

Kendall and Ciro Frulio and daughters Olivia and Emma were living in a quaint home on Franklin Street in East Rockaway, within the village limits but blocks from the Bay Park border, when Hurricane … more

Hurricane Sandy was our worst nightmare realized. This monster storm packed as much energy as two World War II era atomic bombs, causing massive destruction, the likes of which had not been seen since the Long Island Express of 1938, a now legendary Category III hurricane. Trapped on an island jutting into the Atlantic Ocean, we were front and center when Sandy attacked with a vengeance. Thousands of homes were inundated with seawater and sewage. Hundreds were left uninhabitable. Two and a half years later, we continue to rebuild our tattered shoreline. In this series we will look in the coming months at the Governor’s Office of Storm Recovery’s ongoing effort to reconstruct worst-case homes, businesses and communities that Sandy ravaged on Oct. 29, 2012 — and the myriad issues that residents and officials face as they piece together our shredded infrastructure. At the same time, we will look at state and local officials’ efforts to reinforce Long Island in the hope that we might be able to withstand nature’s fury better when the next monster storm hits. —Scott Brinton, senior editor more

New York state has pledged to fund the installation of a $150 million nitrogen-removal system at the Bay Park Sewage Treatment Plant, which will reduce the environmental harm of the sewage the plant discharges into Nassau County’s Western Bays, state and county officials said on Feb. 12. The officials, speaking at a Mineola news conference, also called on the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide $550 million more to build an outfall pipe to carry effluent from Bay Park into the Atlantic Ocean. more

One of the biggest post-Hurricane Sandy challenges has been getting resources directly to local residents, businesses and community infrastructure and resiliency projects. more

The first federal government shutdown in 17 years has reached Week 2. The catalyst? The debt limit. The accelerant? Obamacare. more