24Building it back
Sandy help 4 yrs. later in Gerritsen Beach
WITH ALMOST all of its 2,000 homes flooded during Hurricane Sandy, many in Brooklyn’s Gerritsen Beach community are still feeling the pain four years later.
On Saturday, elected officials and hundreds of volunteers with Rebuilding Together NYC put on their hardhats to provide home repairs free of charge for low-income families still dealing with the consequences of the storm that ravaged their neighborhood.
After meeting at a Gerritsen Beach firehouse early in the day, volunteers did an estimated $40,000 in repair work on five homes and two community centers in the low-lying neighborhood, which sits less than five blocks from the Jamaica Bay shoreline.
Many residents are still waiting on the repair services they need to return to life before Sandy battered the area.
“A lot of low income homeowners were not able to afford the flood insurance required for FEMA assistance,” said Kimberly George, executive director of Rebuilding Together NYC.
“It made it very difficult for them to get the services they needed,” she said.
Surrounded by water on three sides, the coastal community suffered some of the worst damage seen in the city.
“In most of the homes, the water completely filled the basement and went up into the first floor,” George said.
For homes that had electricity boxes and other critical wiring in the basement, the damage was particularly acute, she said.
Lifelong Gerritsen Beach native Denise Garrett, 50, a disabled former office manager who suffered severe spine and neck injuries during a serious car accident in 2000, was left with a flooded kitchen and basement after the storm. Her house foundation also cracked — something she’s reminded of every time it rains and water seeps through the floor.
“They literally said, ‘Don’t worry about it. We’re going to come and take care of you,’ and they did,” Garrett said of Rebuilding Togther NYC.
“We are so thankful to every single one of them that have come here today,” she said.