Stressed about big storms? It’s only natural

Anxiety exists four years after Hurricane Sandy

Posted

Hurricane Sandy was the South Shore’s worst nightmare realized. It was a monster storm that flooded portions of communities — specifically Meadowmere Park, back Lawrence, Hewlett Harbor and Cedarhurst — and left tens of thousands of lives in tatters. It was traumatic. People felt a visceral sense of fear for weeks, if not months. Could another big storm strike?

Overcome with emotion and fighting back tears, Lorraine Gogel, a 33-year resident of Meadowmere Park, said, “It’s not the house. It was the memories we lost.” After Sandy struck on Oct. 29, 2012, Gogel, who serves as secretary of the community’s civic association, said that her house was flooded by four feet of water, and irreplaceable memorabilia, including photographs, were lost in the aftermath.

In the neat 100-home enclave of Meadowmere Park, which sits on Jamaica Bay, near Kennedy Airport, Sandy flooded many residents out of their homes. The community’s firehouse became a sanctuary where some residents lived for a while, and where many more got hot meals and showered. “After the storm, the Fire Department rallied together, and they were phenomenal,” Gogel said.

Chances are that another big storm will eventually hit Long Island. Hurricane Matthew, which grew to Category 4 status, recently roared across Haiti and the Bahamas before slamming into the East Coast. Five Towners know all too well the long road back to a normal life that many thousands of Matthew’s victims face.

“That’s what brings me back to reality,” Gogel said, referring to the hundreds of Haitians who lost their lives in Matthew. Regardless of the damage her home sustained in Sandy, she is happy to be alive.

At first, weather forecasters thought Matthew might drift out into the Atlantic, like so many hurricanes. But it didn’t. That got Long Islanders’ attention. Many people prepared for the storm, fearful that they were in for the next Big One.
A sense of trepidation is natural, according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America. After a storm as devastating as Sandy, people grasp the awe-inspiring power of a major hurricane. Anxiety motivates them to act, either by fighting (battening down their homes and preparing for the worst) or taking flight (heading to higher ground).

“Every time there’s a storm, it affects the clients,” Jane Collins, the social work supervisor for Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Rockville Centre, said. “They’re so anxious and paranoid.”

Collins added that while NY Rising is helping people, the process of acquiring that aid is stressful, because it involves waiting for money, permits and approvals whose details can be overwhelming when added to people’s daily responsibilities. “We never know with PTSD,” Collins said, referring to post-traumatic stress disorder. “When another event comes, it just brings back all of the other trauma that has happened in their lives.”

Gail Pugliese has lived in Meadowmere Park for 76 years. “It destroyed the whole house,” she said of Sandy, adding that she had never had an inch of water in her house before 2012. Pugliese plans to raise her home, but, she said, “It’s been four years, and we still don’t have our permits.”

On Oct. 19, Gogel said, she received approval from the Town of Hempstead’s Department of Buildings to lift her house. She said she hopes the process of raising it five feet off its current foundation will begin next month. Once again she will be out of her home, and will live with her daughter in Wantagh for the roughly four months the construction is expected to take. “I’m racing time,” Gogel said, “because once winter hits, I don’t want to do it.”