Superstorm Sandy Two-Year Anniversary: NYC Homeowners Finally Get Homes Fixed

NEW YORK—Margurie Batts heard a loud noise, and then the water came in.
Superstorm Sandy Two-Year Anniversary: NYC Homeowners Finally Get Homes Fixed
New York City mayor Bill de Blasio (C), with his wife Chirlane McCray (L) and owner of a Superstorm-Sandy-damaged home, Margurie Batts (R), at Batts's home in Coney Island, Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2014. On Wednesday, the city announced a collaboration with local nonprofits and community organizations that would link homeowners to repair services. William Alatriste/New York City Council
Annie Wu
Updated:

NEW YORK—Margurie Batts heard a loud noise, and then the water came in.

The storm surge from nearby Coney Island Creek and the Atlantic Ocean rushed into Batts’s home, and reached up to the edge of the second floor. 

Luckily, Batts was living on the second floor. Her first floor tenant, a family of four, had evacuated ahead of warnings that Superstorm Sandy could flood low-lying coastal areas.

For over a month, Batts stayed at her son’s home in Long Island. She moved back into her house after the city installed an emergency boiler and got hot water running. But it would be almost two years later when she would finally get her house fixed.

“Anytime you have a void in your life, it isn’t pleasant,” Batts said, an 80-year-old retired postal worker. “But you can’t have it wearing and tearing on you.”

Batts has owned her home on Neptune Ave. in Coney Island for the past 37 years. “I was waiting for my season to come, and it finally has.”

Batts’s home is now getting repairs from the nonprofit Habitat for Humanity, through a new city partnership with local community organizations that the mayor announced on Wednesday, the second-year anniversary since Sandy hit. 

The 2012 storm killed 44 New Yorkers and cost the city $19 billion in losses.

New York City mayor Bill de Blasio paints a wall at a Superstorm-Sandy-damaged home in Coney Island, Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2014. On Wednesday, the city announced a collaboration with local nonprofits and community organizations that would link homeowners to repair services. (William Alatriste/New York City Council)
New York City mayor Bill de Blasio paints a wall at a Superstorm-Sandy-damaged home in Coney Island, Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2014. On Wednesday, the city announced a collaboration with local nonprofits and community organizations that would link homeowners to repair services. William Alatriste/New York City Council
Annie Wu
Annie Wu
Author
Annie Wu joined the full-time staff at the Epoch Times in July 2014. That year, she won a first-place award from the New York Press Association for best spot news coverage. She is a graduate of Barnard College and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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