It is eight months since Hurricane Sandy ravaged the seashore town of Gerritsen Beach in Brooklyn, New York. She took the town’s sheltered innocence, their floorboards and sometimes their livelihoods; she stole baby pictures, marriage certificates, cars and precious little somethings—and she sent kitchen parts, like limbs of the homes to which they belonged, soaring down rushing rivers of debris where once there were streets.
Eight months is a long time to be living and reliving the night you are trapped in your home with no phone or lights or cell service, as the waters rage outside and begin to fill your first floor. Eight months is a long time to remember the fear as you make your way upstairs, worrying about your grown children and their children, and the neighbors, and you and your husband; worrying because you never learned to swim, and water was filling your home, higher and higher, destroying 40 years of possessions, both precious and not.
Finally, after watching out the little window upstairs as the neighbor’s home seems swallowed up by the rising water, you lay your weary body on the bed, wondering if you will be engulfed in your sleep.
Sometimes now—and not because you are older and having senior moments—no, this is something very different from that—sometimes you can’t remember your son’s birthday or how old he is, and you know—you even say it right out loud—you just can’t think right yet. The first floor of your house is a jumble of salvaged possessions, a new couch, raw floorboards and barren walls. The home you kept so nice for all these years is reduced to unfinished wood; a flimsy barrier against the elements. Your son worries there might be critters scurrying beneath you, and there was that mold at first that made you all sick. At least the bathroom finally works okay, and you went out and got a range and new sink so you can cook up a hot meal, but certainly nothing fancy. Maybe someday if you ever have a kitchen back, maybe then you’ll bake up a batch of your ginger-molasses cookies. When was the last time you even had a taste of your beloved molasses? Well, no point thinking about that.
For now, you, with your one blind eye, and your husband, who can no longer climb up on ladders and stools to fix things…well, you are doing what you can, bit by bit. But it’s been eight months, and it seems like it may not ever get much better than this.
Liz, a young mother, is standing in the center of the first floor, talking about what Sandy did to them. From October to Christmas, she says, she, her husband, her daughter and their dog each stayed with separate family and friends as they tried to figure out what to do. When they could finally live together again, only the tiny second floor of their home was inhabitable. So they got a little fridge and a single induction burner, and patched together a make-shift kitchen upstairs. Her husband got pretty sick right after they moved back in, as did so many people right afterwards. No matter how much everyone cleaned, there was mold.
But they are doing okay, says Liz. Her throat catches, her big eyes dampen, and she says, “We’re okay, you know? I lost my daughter seven years ago, and after living through that, well…” As her voice trails off, I understand her silence: no torment or pain can equal that of losing a child. But living like this is hard—hard in a different way, like camping out without decent gear or the means to get any for eight long months, not even allowing yourself to think about if and when it will get better. It isn’t as bad now as when they all lived apart, but they are huddled in a tiny space, cobbling together a life as best they can.
When I ask Liz what she will cook when she has a kitchen again, she gestures for me to follow her. She shows me what is left of the kitchen she built a few years ago—just some upper cabinets that were above the flood line. She tells me that re-doing the house was the project that occupied her, helped her get through the time right after her daughter died, but that this time she doesn’t feel the same about it. “Its just that I did it, and I was really into it, and now, well you see,” she says, sweeping her hand around the dust-filled ground floor with its walls of studs and unfinished sheetrock and torn up floors, “I just don’t really know if it’s ever going to happen.”
A few minutes later I ask her what she likes to cook, and she half smiles and looks off, remembering times when her house was full of extended family and her table was laden with food. “Nothing fancy, just a big meal that everyone likes. That’s what I want to do again,” she says, “just cook a big meal for everyone.”
Gerritsen Beach is a town like few others in New York. Tucked on a tiny peninsula between Sheepshead Bay and Marine Park, it began in the 1920s as a middle class beach community tightly crowded with one-story bungalows. Over the years, they were winterized, second floors were put on, and Gerritsen Beach became a year round community of working class people. Everyone I spoke to in Gerritsen Beach has family there; parents, children, siblings and grandchildren living (if not in the same house) within a few blocks of each other.
In October of last year, Hurricane Sandy crippled this tight knit community. Government agencies, including FEMA, came and went, as have the insurance companies. One mother of four boys I spoke to recieved $7000 from her insurance company—not even enough to cover her boiler ($7,700), let alone to rip out dangerous walls and floors and start rebuilding. And now, for all these months, people like Liz who lost most of their possessions are forced to live in two rooms above ripped up homes, unsure how or if her living conditions will ever improve.
I learned about Gerritsen Beach through the magazine Every Day with Rachael Ray, who asked me to help spread the word about how much work is left to be done post-Sandy. Meredith Corporation, (parent company of EDWRR) teamed up with an incredible organization called Rebuilding Together to help get the residents of Gerritsen Beach back into habitable and healthy homes. A little over a week ago, Meredith brought several of us to Gerritsen Beach to talk to some homeowners and see what Sandy wrought. They’ll bring us back again on June 6th — along with hundreds of Meredith employee volunteers who will spend the day sheet-rocking, painting, laying tile and doing what ever else it takes to get families back in livable homes.
I keep thinking about the women I spoke to and I pretend it is after June 6th. They are in their kitchens, and it is just an ordinary day. Maybe Mrs. Morel takes a little taste of molasses from the spatula just after she slides a tray of her ginger-molasses cookies into the oven, and maybe Liz wipes a drip of sauce off the edge of the casserole dish before she brings it to the table. Maybe they are both home again, in their kitchens, doing the most everyday kinds of things that everyone deserves to be able to do in their homes.
I will let you know.
For more information about this project, go to WeRebuild.com
Kurt Jacobson says
Marge, thanks for sharing this info. I would like to help, and will do what I can.
Kimberly Winter Stern says
Thanks for sharing this, Marge. So beautifully written. As a former Meredith employee (Better Homes and Gardens) I am moved by what they are doing to help the people of Gerritsen Beach. I will check out Rebuilding Together–because even though I live far from the New Jersey seashore, all of us are vulnerable to some sort of disaster, at some point in time, that will require the collective help of others.
edward says
Thanks for reminding me to count my blessings. Life can change in an instant.
Kelly Abt says
Thankyou to all the precious volunteers who came to Gerritsen Beach with big hearts and strong hands!
Mary Kolenovic says
Thank you for writing such a touching article about my grandmother.
Marge says
Your grandmother touched my heart.
Eileen says
Beautiful, sad and oooo soo true. Life will never be the same. We try and pick up the pieces and move on…together.
Liza Yonus says
What a beautiful article. Really hit home for me as we were affected too… certainly not as bad as some others. I tell people when they ask, how’s it going that my house looks like a storage unit but it will get better. An FYI: Ellen Degerenes’ show is giving away a JCP $5,000 gift card. I have entered and plan on using it for my Aunt in Breezy if I win. Her house was obliterated by Sandy. In addition to replacing some things in our basement that were destroyed.
Ladies, you should enter this contest too. Good luck!
J says
Thank you for writing this beautiful article and for getting so involved. As I drove by my neighbors homes this past week I felt a smile creeping onto my face as I saw so many volunteers smiling helping to replace fences and repair homes. Yes Sandy devastated every family in Gerritsen Beach and many of the seniors are experiencing PTSD symptoms as well. (especially my dad today hearing that there may be flash floods) My parents lost everything but I say bitter sweetly today that they have their home repaired and need no additional assistance as so many others do. I say this is bitter sweet because my mom only had 3 months in her new home. We blame Sandy for her becoming very ill in early November and eventually taking her from us this past April. So I say to those who want a kitchen, you can have mine, I just want my mom back. Although that sounded mean it was not meant to. Smile for the things you do have. it just means have patience, everything will be ok for everyone soon.The people of gerritsen beach are the strongest and most committed people I know when it comes to taking care of their own. You can not change the past so you must accept it and change your future to adapt with a positive attitude to truly live
Marge says
I am so sorry for your loss. I know it too well– and I, too, would trade everything I own to have my own mother back. But there is no such trade to be had.
It is hard to be patient, and so stressful, when you have just a little burner and a bathroom sink as a kitchen; to step on raw floorboards where once there was tile or wood or carpeting; and to wonder how you will ever make order out of the chaos in which you have been living for so long. Chaos where you once had a home. It is hard to be without your home and a proper kitchen, or to be huddled up in a tiny space with too many people. It is the kind of stress that can make you ill.
Yet when I spoke to people in Gerritsen Beach, I saw how strong they are, and how they have struggled to be patient when their worlds were turned upside down. It is especially difficult for people who have already experienced loss, or who are no longer young enough to simply bounce back and move on. And yet every single person I spoke to said they knew some people had it worse or equally as bad. Every single person showed compassion in their own hardship, just as you express in your comments here.
Theresa corn man says
Thank you for writing about Gerritsen Beach. My family & friends live in GB and its one of those tight knit communities. So many have lost so much, and yet they have been forgotten. So many communities in the five boroughs are coastal and were flooded,yet all you hear is NJ’s shore. So much needs to be done to build back these communities.
Joan says
Once again I have been so touch by the experiences that so many people that have survived Sandy had to endure and continue to endure. Part of me grew up in Garritsen Beach. I was married in the parish to a local resident and many of my summer days were spent swimming by the Tomaqua (can’t believe I did that) One of my favorite memories of the day were my husband jumping off the boat to dive for mussels and clams. We were very young then and the world was much simpler. I am very greatful that Aunt Vi, Grandma Grace and even my husband are not alive to see the devestation of the place and the hurt of the people they so loved. I hope one day that I make peace with the ocean that I always loved so much and remember the joy it once provided. God Bless you all for the good you are doing.