Stressed about superstorms?

Locals learn to deal with storm-induced anxiety

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Ali Frankel, the president of the South Bellmore Civic Association, said she personally learned a lot after Hurricane Sandy. In 2012, she was living on Lee Place, in a home that retained three feet of water during the storm. Even though she lost the house, cars and two dumpsters worth of personal items, she decided to say in South Bellmore, moving to Judith Drive.

“When you have kids in the school district, when you get involved and invested in the community, you get into your grind,” she said, “It’s not so easy to pick up and leave. But for the older generation that’s been through Gloria, Irene and now Sandy — they’ve had it.”

When Eileen Alber, 70, started waking up at 1 a.m., grabbing a flashlight and walking to the backyard of her Seaford Harbor home to check the water levels and the moon on a regular basis, she knew that she had to move.

Alber lived on Riverside Avenue with her husband, Bruce, for 37 years — and the house never flooded until Hurricane Irene hit the area in 2011. But that storm was no match for Sandy, which gutted the ground level of Alber’s home with four and a half feet of water. Approximately $350,000 worth of renovations later, Alber still felt a visceral sense of fear, even years afterwards.

“You’d see that a storm, like Hermine, was coming on TV and you couldn’t sleep,” she said, referencing the hurricane that made landfall in Florida in August. “You just don’t know when a storm is going to hit, and between storms, high tide and the full moons … you could have enough of a combination to create a problem. We decided to move because we didn’t want to experience another issue.”

Alber landed in Riverhead one month before the fourth anniversary of Sandy. While many of her neighbors in shorefront communities like Seaford, Wantagh, Bellmore and Merrick made the same difficult decisions, scores more are finding ways to cope with their storm-induced anxiety while remaining in their homes.

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 hopping in a car and driving to higher, drier ground).

The Southeast Nassau Guidance Center, a nonprofit that sponsors programs in Wantagh, Levittown and Seaford, offered free counseling to Sandy victims in the immediate aftermath of the storm. Laurie Cannon, a licensed clinical social worker at the Seaford mental health clinic, said they saw an influx of new clients from the communities surrounding their Jackson Avenue facility who developed anxiety, depression and even post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms while they were displaced or rebuilding their storm-damaged homes.

“People experience PTSD when they witness or experience something that's traumatic — it doesn’t have to be as traumatic as war or a bad car accident,” she explained. “When something happens that’s very traumatic to someone, they will continue to respond to stimuli like that … they may avoid things that have to do with it or become so preoccupied with it.”

For instance, Cannon said, Sandy victims may find themselves glued to the television to monitor weather patterns. Four years later, she said many still have nightmares and recurring memories. Some haven’t even gone through their personal belongings that they locked away in advance of Sandy.

Phil Franco, the president of the Seaford Harbor Civic Association, described Sandy as “an open wound” that has made residents of the southern tip of the community anxious. But they have learned a lot from their negative experiences, he said, including insurance processes and how to safeguard their homes prior to a storm.

“When you get into a bad car accident, you might drive a little safer,” he said. “There comes a point where you have to say, ‘I can't really go my whole life thinking about this.’ Then you're in negative territory, and you have to stay positive.”

Cannon said Sandy-related anxiety did impact local senior citizens in particular, as some do not have family living nearby and seeing mementos gathered throughout their lifetimes washed away was traumatic. While they can learn coping skills and relaxation techniques, Cannon said that, “If they have the resources to move, the reality is that it can happen again. Go somewhere where you feel on safe ground, and are not in constant worry during Hurricane season.”

Alber did just that, as she and her husband now live miles away from water. However, she misses the canals, watching the boats go by — and, most importantly, living in the same community as her grandchildren. But, as Alber offered, she and her husband are in their 70s and it’s not as easy to handle things such as repairs. “We really loved living there, but as I got older, it just became tiresome every time there was a storm.”