REMEMBERING SANDY’S VICS
Sad anniversary for those lost in storm
For the last four years, Lisa Avellino has marked the anniversary of Hurricane Sandy the same lonely way: a drunken visit to her boyfriend’s grave in Staten Island, where she’d wonder about the life they could have had.
In the dark of St. Peter’s Cemetery in West Brighton, she’d speak in sweet whispers to her soulmate of eight years, Artur Kasprzak, who died as he saved others from Sandy’s wrath.
“I’d tell him, ‘I will always love you,’ and to send me a sign he’s with me,” said Avellino, 32.
Avellino was riding out the storm with Kasprzak, 28, and his family — parents Irena and Jozef, his sister Marta and her husband, Rafal, a nephew, 15-month-old Max, and a neighbor — in their South Beach home.
Kasprzak, an NYPD officer in the 1st Precinct, was the type to take control of a situation. So when water began pouring in the home at around 7 p.m., he ordered his loved ones to the attic. Then, to make sure no one was left behind, he ran down to the basement — where he was electrocuted by live wires that hit the floodwaters.
His family called 911 when he never returned, but rescuers weren’t able to reach them until 7 the next morning, police said.
“It brings me great frustration,” Avellino said of the interminable delay getting to her boyfriend. “Even if I could change it, it wouldn’t bring him back.”
The two fell for each other when they were students at the College of Staten Island. They loved making dessert together, especially crème brûlée, and tying the knot was their next step.
“The day he died, he had picked out houses for us to go see to start our life together and was in contact with a Realtor,” Avellino said.
Avellino, a high-school science teacher, recently moved to Myrtle Beach, SC, and is single.
“I keep waiting for the day that his death will make some kind of sense and for the hole it has left in my life to be filled,” she said.
But she’s making progress, and today’s anniversary will be different. Instead of drinking in a cemetery, Avellino plans to write “I love you” on a balloon and send it off.
“I feel like I can actually talk about it without having a breakdown,” she said.
Glenda Moore, a Staten Island nurse, lost her two sons, ages 2 and 4, after they were swept from her arms by rushing water.
Another Staten Islander, Patricia Dresch, clung to her 13-year-old daughter, Angela, but couldn’t hold on after a wall at their Tottenville home collapsed. Angela was fatally swept away, along with Dresch’s husband, George.
In Brooklyn, high-school teacher Jessie Streich-Kest and boyfriend Jacob Vogelman, both 24, were crushed by a falling tree while walking their dog.
Staten Islander Lena Norris, 67, lost her mother, Ella, 89, and barely survived herself.
“I was on the roof for eight hours before being rescued by firefighters,” Norris told The Post.
Norris had been on the phone with her mother and sister, Diane, before losing connection.
Diane desperately tried to hold her mother for hours as they perched on their windowsill amid raging waters. Eventually, Ella decided enough was enough.
“My mother told her, ‘I can’t do this anymore,’ and my sister let her go,” Norris said. “It’s just horrible.”
This year, Norris plans to spend the anniversary with other grieving families.
“It helps to know you’re not alone,” she said.