Hurricane Sandy: three years later

There had been warnings for years. The big one will come, it will be worse than you can imagine, you will not be prepared. We all heard the warnings, and yet we did little to heed them. Then Hurricane Sandy came.

The truth is, we were lucky. Sandy could have been a lot worse. We know that now, watching Hurricane Patricia, the largest storm on record, slam into Mexico. The scientists tell us Sandy wasn’t the big storm, and that we should be prepared for something worse.

On the third anniversary of Sandy, as we look around, we ask, Are we ready? The answer is, no, we are not. Although we have come a long way since that frightening storm, we still have a long way to go, and many of us wonder if the political storm that followed was worse than the storm itself.

On Oct. 30, 2012, communities along the shores of the Northeast awoke to a pre-Halloween nightmare. Almost all of Island Park’s 1,000 homes — along with schools, churches and businesses — were damaged or destroyed. Families were driven to live like refugees — with friends, relatives, in motels, shelters, even churches. Too many are still displaced. We will never be whole until all of our families are home again.

We had help, to be sure. An army of government and private contractors fanned out to tear down and demolish, fill endless dumpsters and cart away the pieces of our lives. We worked day and night. It was cold, it was damp, and it even snowed, but we survived. Neighbors who did not know one another banded together to help, offering food, clothing and support. That help continues to this day.

Some houses have been repaired, and some have been raised, but many were all but destroyed and have not been rebuilt.

There is some good news. Francis X. Hegarty School underwent $11 million in repairs, and after 10 months, it reopened. It has a new playground. Masone Beach has a new playground, a new swing set, a new splash park, a repaired handball court, and more. By next summer the bathrooms will be rebuilt, with money from Nassau County.

Many businesses have been repaired or relocated. The iconic Peter’s Clam House, a landmark for almost a century, has a new owner, and underwent $2 million in repairs.

The Village of Island Park Village is just now beginning a study focusing on drainage improvements and storm infrastructure repairs, paid for with more than $40 million in federal money. There will be a new Village Hall, a step in what Mayor Michael McGinty calls “Destination Island Park.”

In Oceanside, new housing developments are going up, necessitating major repairs in sewer and electrical infrastructure.