Public Employee Press

Surviving Sandy
''We are still alive"

Staten Island's Midland Beach was a neighborhood of low-slung bungalows and frame houses that Construction Laborer Mike Tucciarelli called home - until Sandy struck.

On Oct. 29 the Dept. of Environmental Protection ordered Tucciarelli's crew of Local 376 members to work, as thousands of DC 37 members suddenly became first responders while the storm gripped their families and battered their homes.

As rising waters engulfed their East Shore area, Tucciarelli's wife and daughters, ages 2 and 4, evacuated twice - each time for higher ground.

"I was going crazy until my father reached me with news that they were all safe," said Tucciarelli.

Sandy was the most powerful storm to hit New York in decades, with 90-mile-an-hour winds knocking out power and cellular phone service in outer boroughs. The seas surrounding New York City - the Atlantic Ocean, New York Harbor and Jamaica Bay - rose to record levels and ravaged coastal communities throughout the tristate region. Sandy's devastation will cost New York over $40 billion.

Angry waters breached the Midland Beach seawall with strength that knocked houses off their foundations. Cars and boats bobbed about like toys in a tub and crashed into front porches and living rooms. An upended freighter landed in one front yard, dwarfing the block's compact cottages.

As Sandy raged, DC37 members held the city together and worked around the clock to restore normalcy. Mike worked a double shift Oct. 29.

"It's weird to see this place that was once so vibrant, where everyone knew each other. I lived here all my life. Now it's a ghost town," Tucciarelli said.

Two days after the hurricane, Mike and his brother donned hip waders and towed a raft as they assessed the damage. The stench of raw sewage and fuel hung in the air. Tucciarelli's 80-year-old house was submerged in 14 feet of salt water, which flooded the basement, destroyed the boiler and saturated the foundation so the cinder blocks crumbled like cookies. It flattened his fence and moved the basketball hoop 30 feet.

Mike made three trips to salvage clothing and his little girls' toys from the second-floor bedrooms. The family lost everything.

After three weeks, flood waters receded. With the close-knit community in shambles, resilient Staten Islanders fed and clothed each other until FEMA, the federal disaster agency, and the National Guard took over. Now they work to clean up their neighborhood and vow to rebuild.

Sandy took 20 lives on Staten Island. "Neighbors who did not get out in time had to cut holes in their roofs and wait to be rescued," Mike said. "We're still alive and that's all that matters."

—Diane S. Williams