New York: A few more days and the last of Hurricane Sandy’s damage will finally be cleared from Mohammad Rahman’s southern Brooklyn home — five years after the storm ravaged New York.
Two young women install a door frame on the two-storey house’s ground floor under the watch of Ben Fransua, who manages construction for an organisation renovating homes damaged by the hurricane.
When he visited the house, situated less than a mile from the beach, for the first time last spring, Fransua discovered the walls full of mold and holes — souvenirs from Sandy, which caused three metres of floodwater on October 29, 2012.
His non-profit — a branch of SBP, the disaster recovery organisation founded to help rebuild Louisiana in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina — took over the construction site, supported by AmeriCorps, a national body that engages hundreds of thousands of Americans in community service each year.
But while this renovation is finished, three more are on deck, Fransua explains. There are 50 names on the waiting list and every week, two or three more people contact the organisation, said the SBP’s Alana Tornello.
When Sandy struck, the Princeton graduate was in Japan working in the aftermath of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident. A Staten Island native, she decided to return to New York to help.
Since 2012 the SBP has renovated 299 houses — including 30 under the “Build it Back” municipal programme, which has helped 8,200 homeowners who did not have flood insurance.
But bureaucracy, rising construction costs and unscrupulous storm-chasing contractors are several reasons Tornello cites to explain why dozens of buildings remain damaged five years on from Sandy, which killed more than 40 people in New York and cost the state $42 million (Dh154 million).
“To be fair,” she said, “this was the first time that the city was dealing with an event of this size”.
But, she added, “from the homeowners perspective, it’s been an incredibly difficult and devastating five years”.
Shortening deadlines is the goal of the SBP, which helps owners every step of the way, from initial building surveys to the completion of projects. The organisation has tapped the expertise of companies such as Toyota, known for optimising production speed.
SBP also combines public and private funding sources, utilising donations from individuals, societies and religious organisations — but Tornello is worried funding could dry up, with help and donations shifting to recently affected areas.
In the wake of Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria — which whipped Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico in recent months — authorities in New York stressed the importance of preparing for future storms, which scientists fear are likely due to climate change.
So now, SBP is looking ahead.
With the support of $9.3 million of funding from the state of New York, a few days ago the organisation launched its “Uplift” programme, which will help raise 28 homes located in high-risk areas of Staten Island and two Brooklyn neighbourhoods.
Joseph Lynch’s small house, whose living room was flooded with four feet of water five years ago to the day, will be the first to benefit.
The 69-year-old said he was “so grateful” to enter the programme, saying it “was like a burden that was lifted from me”.
After Sandy struck, Lynch was forced to seek shelter in a centre for hurricane victims near his Gerritsen Beach home, located on Brooklyn’s southern coast some 25 kilometres from central Manhattan.
When the next storm comes — because he has no doubt it will — he said he’ll “have a place to live and I can bring in other people, which a lot of people in this neighbourhood will do.”
