Year after epic storm, New York rises
Residents lose life savings lifting homes
NEW YORK — For the victims of Hurricane Sandy, there is but one question. It’s not about staying or leaving, rebuilding or repairing.
Those questions have long since been settled in the minds of the millions affected by the worst storm in New York’s recorded history.
No. It’s something quite simple and perhaps entirely symbolic of modern times.
The question is: “When can I lift?”
One year after the storm hit, all along the New York and a good part of the Jersey shore homeowners have to lift their houses at least three metres above the ground.
Think about that. More than 600,000 homes.
This is the new reality of a world gripped by manmade climate change thrust upon the most populated area of the U.S. by an eerily prescient storm.
“It was extraordinary,” said Raymond Bradley, a geoscientist and director of the Climate Systems Research Center at the University of Massachusetts. “Maybe unique in the last several centuries.”
The storm hit New York City Oct. 29, 2012, at high tide and collided with a cold front that greatly increased the amount of rainfall.
The warmer ocean waters caused by climate change added to its intensity as it adds to the force of most storms these days both coastal and inland, he said.
So New York and New Jersey are lifting. If homeowners want flood insurance — required by their mortgage lenders — they must lift within four years.
In New York this great lifting could affect more than 300,000 housing units. At a conservative $60,000 per lift plus new foundation, that’s $18 billion. Add that number again for New Jersey. Government programs such as New York Rising help needy owners with subsidies, but they have to pay it back.
Drive along the treeless streets of Long Beach with its tiny bungalows often packed arm’s length apart and the roofline suddenly spikes skyward. A lifted house appears as a giant among the wannabes.
Steve Plotnick, 64, a retired doctor who now teaches science, and his wife Angela, 54, an administrator, are among the unlifted. Just next door their neighbour has lifted his tiny bungalow three metres off the ground. The Plotnicks hope their lifting will come before the next storm.
If not? “We’re in trouble,” Angela said.
A year ago, the ocean and bay waters met at their doorstep. They stuffed towels in their windows and door frames only to watch helplessly as the ocean rose up through the floor boards, swamping their home and sending them racing up a ladder and into the attic where they remained for the next six hours.
The storm not only robbed them of their home, it took all their savings and put them on the edge of bankruptcy.
Every homeowner interviewed for this story tells a similar story. It’s one of being held to ransom by insurance companies, who refused to pay anywhere near the true cost of rebuilding, and by contractors who sign fixed-price contracts and then demand more money. The Plotnicks said that when their contractor demanded another $21,000, which they couldn’t pay, he abandoned the job and slapped a lien on the property. Carpetbaggers came offering rock-bottom prices for their home.
“One woman came right into our house and started picking through stuff she could take away,” Steve said.
Three months before the storm hit, the Plotnicks purchased new appliances and bedroom furniture on credit. All that was ruined. The insurance company gave them a mere $250 for contents, claiming they were insured only for wind damage.
Steve said their broker always told them they were insured inside and out for flooding.
“We sued them for damages and they came back with an offer for about $4,000,” he said. “So we are in the midst of negotiations with them but we are not going to do better than that.”