Guest Post from Breezy Point

For the last year I've been encouraging my friend and colleague, Mike, to write a blog about home restoration. He had bought a very run-down cottage in a beach community in Queens, Breezy Point and was totally restoring it. He worked on the foundation, the structure, the plumbing, put in a new electrical system and was just finishing the sheet rock when I went to visit two Sundays ago. The bathroom was just about finished and it was great, with white wainscotting, grey tiled floor and a cute sink and vanity with oak trim. I have become close to Mike's family and have found true friends. I was awed by Mike's work and could already visualize the backyard barbecues next summer. Eight days after my visit Hurricane Sandy arrived and devastation came to Breezy Point.

Mike sent a note out today and I asked if I could share it with all of you, who have been such steadfast supports to us in New York. He graciously agreed and I will also post several photos he took last night. They give a sense of the tremendous damage caused by the storm.

Mike writes:

Work is crazy. I can’t talk right now but it is comforting to know that I have such considerate and caring colleagues. These last few days have eerily remind me of 9/11.  It’s hard to believe the magnitude of this storm. I have been staying overnight at work since Sunday. Last night was the first time I could get to Breezy Point.  Very sad situation there.  It was a lovely little beach community where cars stop to let you cross the street and people you don’t know say hello to you.  It now looks like Hiroshima at the end of WWII.  In some spots, there are little signs that houses were once there.  Other houses are collapsed and others pulled from their foundations. Many homes that escaped an 11 foot tidal surge were later devoured by fire. 

The Little house that my son helped me restore still stands. The high water mark is almost as high as the top of my front door. The whole house filled with neck high water.  My decks and fences have been replaced by debris from some other poor neighbor’s home. I waded through 4 feet of water for at least the length of three city blocks to get to it.  The surge must have been tremendous.  Cars were tossed around like toys.  My refrigerator wound up in my living room.  The Kitchen Sink and cabinets came out and moved across the room. All the inside contents of the house are destroyed and strewn all about. Walls, flooring and wiring and even the kitchen has to be gutted.   Salvageable?  Maybe but there is much damage. 

Regardless, the shell of the house remains standing defiantly proud and the family is sad but well.    

  

Again, my thanks, blog buddies, for all of your support and prayers.