The Gamechanger

It's one year since Superstorm Sandy made landfall on the East Coast of New York City.  Tonight, communities on the shore remember with lit candles and flashlights.

As my regular readers may recall, I was born in the Rockaways, in New York City, one of the areas tragically affected. From afar (over 150 miles away away), I tried to use social media to keep track of what my relatives and friends in New York City were experiencing.

This kayak on a Brooklyn street some distance from the ocean (photo taken by a friend) was just the tip of the damage.

A year later, enough damage still remains, although the recovery continues.

We can remember what was, in a visit I made to Red Hook (another affected neighborhood, in Brooklyn) shortly before Sandy .  And, indeed, I've walked the streets of Red Hook again, as I promised to do in that post.

I want to share some photos with you, on this first anniversary of Sandy, of hope reborn in Red Hook.

In some places, when I visited in May, the damage was quite apparent.

But nearby, an open garden center was selling blooms.

A Red Hook housing project has experienced some rough times.

But, just days after the Boston Marathon bombing, Red Hook was raising money for Boston.

Still, so much work remains.  In another Brooklyn neighbor, Gerrisen Beach (in walking distance of one of my relatives), rebuilding continues amidst frustration.

This kind of story, thanks to climate change, has become way too common throughout our world.

At a recent local meeting of our neighborhood and town regarding our own post-flood issues from Tropical Storm Lee in September of 2011, officials called Sandy "the gamechanger".

It was the event that made New York State finally take notice, they said, of all that has been happening with our weather.

I hope our officials are right.