18 The Queens Courier • October 24, 2013 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.queenscourier.com sandy retrospective Burned but not broken FAMILY REBUILDS AFTER BREEZY FIRE BY MAGGIE HAYES [email protected] One year ago, Shamus Barnes found his Breezy Point home in the fire zone that Sandy left behind. “It just looked like a bomb went off in the area,” he said. “You heard about it on the news, but you actually didn’t think it was that bad until you saw it.” Barnes, 44, had been going to Breezy Point since he was five years old. At the time of the storm, he, his wife and three children had a 1940s bungalow they spent summers in. His home, as well as his parents’ home on the same block, was burnt down after an electrical fire broke out that October night. “Your first reaction is shock,” he said. “But in the end, nobody died. There are worse things that could happen.” Barnes was able to get from his northern Shamus Barnes and his family lost their home in the Breezy Point fire the night of Sandy. ONE FAMILY’S RESILIENCE BY MELISSA CHAN [email protected] Count on an Army man to barrel through devastation and come up optimistic. Ocean waves, turned violent by Sandy, pushed a house onto Thomas Sullivan’s home last year, causing it to “twist and buckle” off its foundation until it was eventually torn down. “It was my summer house and my winter, spring and fall house,” he said. “It was our home.” Sullivan and his family are still displaced after losing their Beach 219th Street home of 12 years. But the man who has served more than 20 years in the reserves is marching them forward. “Life has to go on. We have to go to work. We have to get the kids to school,” Sullivan said. “Life got a little more stressful, a little more challenging. But if we could be in a home after two years, I think it’s not the worst thing in the world.” Before the storm hit, Sullivan, 42, sent his wife and three kids away from the coast to Levittown, Long Island. He chose to brave Sandy in his parents’ house in Breezy, which is farther from the ocean. “I stayed for Irene, and I got a false sense that it wasn’t that bad,” he said. “Seeing the house next to my parents come down and seeing the damage throughout the night as it was happening, and the fires, I was expecting the worst.” Sullivan was able to recover some photographs and jewelry from his house but had to deliver the dreaded news to his family: “There is no coming back to Breezy Point.” “The kids had a big sleepover at their cousins’. They were having fun,” he said. “It was very sobering news to my wife to hear.” Sullivan’s three kids — a pair of 11-year-old twin boys and an 8-year-old girl — “lost everything” and had to temporarily enroll in a new school in Levittown. The youngsters proved as resilient as their hero dad, who served 13 months in Iraq and escaped from the 96th floor of the south tower of the World Trade Center on 9/11. Sullivan said they made friends and had a “positive impact on their classrooms” as one of the few displaced students there. Now the family is back in Breezy, living with Sullivan’s parents and submitting rebuilding plans to the city. “I didn’t know if we would be able to come back,” he said. “I thought we were going to have to sell our plot.” Sullivan said “the beautiful environment” he loves about seaside Breezy Point was the same one that turned on him. Still, he said he could not see his family growing up anywhere else. “It’s spotless, it’s pristine. There are pretty dunes, and it’s extremely safe here,” he said. “Life is simple in Breezy — or it was.” New Jersey home to Breezy Point the day after the storm. When he initially heard about the fire, he didn’t know whether his house had been caught in the blaze. “It’s devastating, really,” he said. His 17-year-old son had worked at the Breezy Point Surf Club the summer before and was looking forward to returning this past season, but couldn’t because their home had not yet been rebuilt. Two weeks ago, Barnes was able to get his rebuilding permits approved and poured the foundation for a new home. Through homeowners’ insurance and his own funds, he’ll be able to replace the house he lost, with upgrades, up six feet from the ground. He estimates construction will be done by April, in time for next summer. After the destruction, Barnes is looking towards the future, and his family is ready for another Breezy summer. “My daughter will be 16, she’s looking forward to being a lifeguard,” he said. PHOTO COURTESY OF SHAMUS BARNES SECOND ‘DAY OF ACTION’ FOR THE ROCKAWAYS The Clinton Foundation will bring together residents and volunteers for a second “Day of Action” for Sandy victims. Chelsea Clinton will visit the Rockaways on Saturday, October 26 and along with hundreds of volunteers will work to rebuild houses, clean and update public parks, conduct conservation activities and more. Clinton will also join the St. Bernard Project and its partners to break ground on the future site of the first “Resilient House” in Far Rockaway, the Designing Recovery competition’s winning design for New York. The house is modeled to be energy efficient, cost effective and able to withstand future disasters. Photo Courtesy of Thomas Sullivan The Sullivan family’s Christmas card last year, when Sandy displaced them from their Breezy Point home NAVIGATING THE FLOOD OF INSURANCE CLAIMS Sandy victims not only felt the wrath of the storm, but experienced the scramble to recover funds washed away with the floodwater. Residents report having difficulty dealing with insurance companies and getting back what they believe to be theirs. “The insurance companies have dominated this process because people really don’t know where to turn,” said lawyer John Houghtaling, who specializes in claim insurance litigation and disaster recovery law. Local officials in south Queens have received complaints about insurance companies and inquiries as to where to turn. City Councilmember Eric Ulrich’s office has fielded numerous complaints to the Department of Financial Services (DFS), which handles insurance issues. “Do we receive complaints? Absolutely,” said John Capuano of the DFS. “People have gotten checks, they say it’s not enough or they think something was missed.” The DFS has seen a significant spike in claims since the storm hit, Capuano said, and has been working to contact individual insurance companies. They have additionally done field visits, where the DFS arranges for an adjuster from an insurance company to visit the problem site to “give it a second look” with a DFS staff member, according to Capuano.
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