Sandy Impact Not Forgotten at Boardwalk Ceremony

Story by Joley Welkowitz and Joseph Kellard

Deidre Mahmoud, an eight-year resident of Long Beach, moved into her East Pine Street home a month before Hurricane Sandy ravaged the city six months ago. The day before the storm arrived, she and her family, including her newborn daughter, Emma, evacuated to Lynbrook.

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“Six months later we have about half of our house up and running, but we are much more fortunate than some of our neighbors were, so we have to count our blessings,” Mahmoud said of October storm. 

Mahmoud was one of about a city-estimated 2,000 people that attended Saturday’s boardwalk groundbreaking ceremony at Riverside Boulevard beach,kicking off a project in which the contractor, the Plainview-based Grace Industries, has a 210-day timeline to complete the new 2.2-mile tropical wood and concrete walkway. While Mahmoud said she his glad the boardwalk will be rebuilt, she is more concerned with residents who are still struggling to return to their storm-damaged homes.

“Half of my neighbors are not in their homes and are living elsewhere," she said.

Many Long Beach homeowners haven’t started to rebuild because reimbursements from insurance companies and the Federal Emergency Management Agency are not forthcoming or not enough to cover construction costs. Among the displaced is Councilman John McLaughlin, who was one of several government officials, including U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, former Sen. Al D’Amato, Assemblyman Harvey Weisenberg, and City Manager Jack Schnirman, to address the crowd.

“We are going to build this boardwalk and it will be pieced together bit by bit, just like we will piece our lives back together, and hopefully we will come back to what we were, and never forget it,” said McLaughlin, who is living temporarily in Lynbrook. 

The ceremony came on the heels of Gov. Cuomo’s announcement Friday that $1.7 billion in federal aid will be distributed in grants from the Community Development Block Grant Program (CDBG), under the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), throughout the state. Schumer reassured the crowd that residents struggling to rebuild haven’t been forgotten and that CDBG funds will help them do so. 

“What it [CDBG] means for you homeowners and business owners is this: those of you who laid out money, tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands, will be reimbursed, not in a loan, but by a grant,” Schumer said.

A Walks homeowner, Deidre Rodriguez had more than five feet of flooding invade her basement, destroying all its contents. She said the winter was “very depressing” but she looks forward to the new boardwalk, “because we miss it terribly.”

"People are going to be in debt over this for a very long time but we are fortunate,” Rodriguez added. “There are not many communities like Long Beach around."

David Fritschi, a carpenter who lives in the West End, said that months ago he expected that some parts of the boardwalk would have already been rebuilt. Despite sustaining flooding at his home, which destroyed his truck and many tools, forcing his displacement for two weeks, he and his business partner returned daily to rebuild and assist his neighbors.

“Right after the storm, we came back everyday to help out the neighbors and now we are trying to help them rebuild,” said Fritschi, who noted that the silver lining he took from Sandy is the many new people he met.

Long Beach’s $44.2 million contract with Grace Industries to rebuild the boardwalk includes a labor agreement with the city and Nassau County building trade unions and contractors. These include Civil Service Employees Association members, who attended Saturday's ceremony. 

Long Beach CSEA President John Mooney said he feels honored to work on reconstructing the boardwalk. “The boardwalk is the backbone and the heart of the city and it makes Long Beach the crown jewel it is,” he said.

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