PRIDE & PAIN
2 Sandy lifesavers earn heroism medal
TWO NEW YORKERS who stood up to Hurricane Sandy and saved a half-dozen neighbors from the treacherous waters are getting props from the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission.
But only one of them is around to collect his medal.
Dylan Smith, a 23-year-old Rockaway lifeguard who used his surf board to ferry the stranded people to safety, drowned almost exactly a year ago in a surfing accident in Puerto Rico.
The other medal was awarded to another Belle Harbor resident, 52-year-old Michael McDonnell.
“I am very saddened by the loss of Dylan, but I’m very proud to be honored with him,” said McDonnell. “In deference to the Dylan Smith family, I think that anything that brings light to his memory will help his grieving family.”
Smith’s father, Timothy Smith of Rockaway Park, Queens, said he was told about the medal on Thursday.
“It brings back good memories of what he did,” he said.
He said he isn’t sure how the family intends to mark the first anniversary of his son’s death on Monday.
A storm surge was barreling through Beach ch 130th St. and flames were devouring evouring the houses when Smith th and McDonnell teamed up to rescue neighbors trapped pped on a porch and cut off from safety by the fast-rising water. ter.
Drawing on his know-how as a fisherman, McDonnell fashhioned a safety y rope from m electric wire and twine and waded through the chest-high water to tie it to the railing.
Then McDonnell and Smith began ferrying the trapped people along that slender line to safety.
It was over in minutes. But their heroics came to symbolize the spirit of New Yorkers in the face of Sandy’s fury and turned the pair into local celebrities.
They were named among People magazine magazine’s s her heroes of 2012 for bringing their neighbors to s safety. Sm Smith became the subject of a do documentary by retired cop J John Sica c called “Seven Miles to Shore,” which made its debut in Rin- con, the city off which the young man drowned.
A year after Smith’s death, McDonnell said he and the rest of their street still mourn him, and he still chafes a bit at being called a hero.
“I don’t think we were heroes; I think we were just doing what we thought was humanly right,” he said.
The Pittsburgh-based group hands out Carnegie medals four times a year, and each award is accompanied by a $5,000 grant. Smith’s will go to his survivors.
McDonnell, a sales manager at weight loss company Chefs Diet whose dad was an ad man for the Daily News, said his medal will be a Christmas present to another special person in his life.
“I’m giving that to my mother,” he said. “It will mean the world to her.”