Hurricane Sandy Neighborhoods, Before And After

I can't believe it's just about a year since Hurricane Sandy trashed New Jersey, parts of New York and other states.

Staten Island, New York, the day after

Superstorm Sandy, October, 2012

The Weather Channel has on its Web site 148 photos. Half were taken in the immediate hours and days after Sandy, while the other half are taken in the exact same spots a year or so later.

The photos kind of remind me of the way Vermont is two years after Tropical Storm Irene caused one of the Green Mountain State's worst disasters.

You look around now, and in most places you'd never know Irene hit Vermont. Everything is fixed, perfect, charming. But in a few spots, you see wrecked houses that have been untouched since the day Irene's floods destroyed them.

Same Staten Island neighborhood, a year later



 

Sandy was muc worse and covered a wider area. In the Weather Channel photos, it's fascinating to see some areas are perfectly restored to pre-storm beachfront perfection Other spots have been untouched since the disaster, wrecked buildings still right where Sandy left them.

And still other areas are sort of still in transition.

As you scroll through the Weather Channel photos,   you wonder what the stories are behind the transitions, or lack thereof in the post-Sandy landscape.

The people whose houses are restored got lucky, maybe they had good insurance, or the damage wasn't as bad as it looked.  The system worked for them, maybe.

Breezy Point, Queens, right after Sandy, October, 2012 

What happened at the properties that have been untouched since Sandy?  

In Vermont, the wreckage of houses that are still there are mostly remaining because of the long post-disaster process. 

The federal government is buying many of these properties, so there will never again be a house in the way of a flood.

The wreckage can't be cleared until the government acquires the property. Rules are rules.

About about the wrecked houses from Sandy?  Are the people who own them just still waiting for assistance? Did they just leave town? Have no money so had to permanently abandon their homes? Or did they die in the disaster?

You can't tell from the pictures. You just hope the people whose property hasn't recovered are OK. But you know some of them not.

Same spot, Breezy Point, Queens, October, 2013 

You also know sooner or later, another mega disaster will hit some part of the country or world. And other peoples lives will turn upside down.