Rockaways residents are sharing rebuilding tips, donating to nonprofit groups who helped them a decade ago and collecting gift cards.
Last month, Elizabeth Duffy watched live coverage of firefighters wading through waist-high waters in Naples, Fla., to rescue people in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian, the Category 4 storm that ripped through much of western and central Florida.
The news was a sober, chilling reminder of what Ms. Duffy, a resident of the Rockaways, in Queens, had lived through almost 10 years ago, in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.
“It was so cold that year and no one had heat or hot water or power,” she said. “The streets were full of sand and mud. There were spots where there was nothing,” she continued. “It was like a war zone.”
As images of Ian continued to haunt her, Ms. Duffy called her sister-in-law, another Rockaways resident who lost her house during Sandy and had to rebuild it.
While discussing those dark days, they also remembered the numerous volunteers who arrived to help. “Strangers were just coming and setting up food tents on the corner,” Ms. Duffy said. “These people came to the yacht club and handed out these little wool gray scarfs. It was the warmest scarf I’ve ever had.”
It dawned on the sisters-in-law that they could provide similar support for storm survivors in Florida. In the aftermath of Sandy, the most helpful assistance they received, Ms. Duffy recalled, were gift cards to Home Depot or Best Buy — stores that could help them replace destroyed items — or simply Mastercard or Visa cards that they could spend anywhere. Ms. Duffy, who is the president of Rockaway WISH, a local nonprofit, put out the call for donated gift cards — and advice about using them — throughout her community of volunteers.
One woman responded with a warning: To make sure gift receipts were attached to the card (she tried using one after Sandy, and discovered that she could not without the proof of purchase attached). So the organizers attached the receipts to the gifts. The group also called friends who lived in Florida to find out which stores were open and stocked, and which gift cards would be most useful. Schoolchildren illustrated notes to send with the cards.
The sisters-in-law collected $5,000 worth of cards in three days. Rockaways residents dropped them off in the pouring rain, Ms. Duffy recalled. “It was beautiful, and a little overwhelming.”
These New Yorkers know what it feels like to lose everything.
“After Hurricane Sandy I remember someone put up these hand-painted stars with words of inspiration. It was so moving to see these strangers really cared about us,” Ms. Duffy said. “After that, you feel that you want to pay it forward.”
Other ways of helping have been more practical, like sharing tips on how to work with insurance companies or procure quality contractors. Some have even visited Florida to roll up their sleeves.
Joanne Fogarty, who lives in Breezy Point, Queens, almost traveled to Florida after Ian. “I just wanted to help,” she said. But then she figured out a better way to contribute, based on her own hurricane experience.
When Sandy hit, Ms. Fogarty slept in a parking lot with her mother after trying to evacuate at the last minute and finding the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge closed. While they huddled in their car overnight, a fire destroyed 126 homes in Ms. Fogarty’s neighborhood. “It looked like a bomb had gone off,” she said upon seeing the destruction the next day.
Her house was spared, but a wave overwhelmed the front door, flooding everything. “The watermark was higher than the kitchen counters,” she said. “I remember seeing parts of my deck all over the beach. It’s this distinctive green color so I knew it was mine.”
Two volunteer organizations helped to get Ms. Fogarty back on her feet. Team Rubicon, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit led by military veterans, helped people remove muck and debris from their houses, she said. “They saw me using this ladder to get in and out of my house, so they were like, ‘Why don’t we build you a staircase?’” Operation Blessing, a faith-based humanitarian nonprofit, organized teams of volunteers to do everything from plumbing work to throwing Halloween parties for children. They didn’t leave the Rockaways until January. (Both groups are now on the ground in Florida.)
Recalling the monumental assistance she had received from these groups, Ms. Fogarty opted to stay put in New York after Hurricane Ian, and to donate money to both nonprofits instead. “I decided they didn’t need an almost 60-year-old to show up,” she said. “These were the people who were the most helpful and who were here the longest.”
For John Cori, a Rockaways resident whose house had $250,000 worth of damage after Hurricane Sandy, one of the biggest challenges was dealing with the insurance companies, he said.
After Hurricane Ian, he turned to the Friends of Rockaway Beach Facebook page to collect advice for Floridians about what worked (and didn’t) when dealing with insurance companies. Followers suggested everything from hiring contractors immediately to recruiting an independent insurance adjuster. He passed the tips along to his friends who lived in Florida and encouraged everyone in the almost 38,000-member group to do the same.
In 2015, Lisette Bocker, who had been a lifelong Rockaways resident, moved to Deltona, Fla., a city about 45 minutes from Orlando. There, she met a lot of other Florida newcomers who had never been through a bad storm, like Hurricane Irma in 2017. Last month, they all learned that Hurricane Ian was coming their way.
As a nurse, Ms. Bocker found herself telling patients to have to-go bags packed with nonperishable snacks and a transmitter radio, and to have evacuation routes planned. “I wish I had had those things before Sandy,” she said. She also spread the word that people living outside flood zones should evacuate just to be safe. During Sandy, she evacuated to a zone supposedly not in danger of flooding, but her car and belongings were ruined anyway.
Hurricane Ian unearthed all the emotions she felt years earlier during Hurricane Sandy. “I wasn’t afraid for my life as much this time as I was during Sandy, but it was scary,” she said. “It was the fact that we could lose everything again.”
Her Florida neighborhood is still flooded, she said, and people are still having to kayak to get from place to place. Her house is in one piece, but the ones around her still have no roofs. Ms. Bocker’s message to her neighbors, however, has remained consistent: “There is support around you if you need it.”
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