Homeowners in Breezy Point, Queens, face major decisions in coming months as the federal government prepares to issue new flood elevation maps and state and local governments begin to disburse Sandy relief funds. Located on the western side of the Rockaway Beach peninsula, Breezy Point was pummeled by Superstorm Sandy on Oct. 29 last year. Some 350 homes were lost in the storm, 125 of them from a fire that swept through part of the community that night and the remainder in the 4- to 5-ft-high floodwaters that rose as the Atlantic Ocean on the south side met the Rockaway Inlet to the north on parts of the peninsula.
"It was mind-boggling," says Arthur Lighthall, general manager of the Breezy Point Cooperative (BPC), which owns the land in the area that homeowners built on. Lighthall toured the region as best he could during and immediately after the storm. "Homes were lifted up from their foundations and put anywhere [Sandy] wanted them to go .... Some were lifted several hundred feet from where they were."